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Speaker 1: Into Health has issued a smoky conditions health alert for

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Speaker 1: the Barkley and Central Australia regions. It comes as those

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Speaker 1: bush fires continue to blaze in Epinara and to Watch

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Speaker 1: an Act and has now been issued for Tenant Creek

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Speaker 1: with the smoke potentially being a risk to people with

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Speaker 1: respiratory ailments. Now joining me on the line, excuse me,

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Speaker 1: there's Anti Health Director of Environmental Health, Tracy Ward. Good

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Speaker 1: morning to you. Tracy. Good morning Katie, Thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for your time this morning. Now Tracy, what do we

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Speaker 1: know or what is the current situation in Central Australia

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Speaker 1: and the Barkley region at this point.

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Speaker 2: Well, as we know, there's a massive fire burning down

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Speaker 2: in that region that's generating a lot of bush fire

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Speaker 2: flake which is impacting on their quality.

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Speaker 1: And so when it comes to that air quality, what

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Speaker 1: is you know, what kind of quality are we talking

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Speaker 1: right now in those regions.

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Speaker 2: So bush firefloke contains a lot of particulate matter and

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Speaker 2: when we're talking air quality, we're talking about very small

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Speaker 2: particles that may enter the lung. That's why we want

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Speaker 2: people to be aware about how health messaging around bush

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Speaker 2: fires light.

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Speaker 1: So in terms of that health messaging. What do people

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Speaker 1: need to be aware of when it does come to

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Speaker 1: bush fires and when there is poor air quality around.

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Speaker 2: The most important thing to do is if you've got

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Speaker 2: an asthma management plan or that you are particularly succeptible

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Speaker 2: to spokee, that you follow your doctor's advice, you try

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Speaker 2: and avoid spending any time outdoors and keeping your windows

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Speaker 2: and doors closed whereas possible, and just monitor equality and

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Speaker 2: follow their health messages.

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Speaker 1: So, Tracy, do we know what the current air quality

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Speaker 1: level is in those regions at this point, like in

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Speaker 1: the Barklay and Central Australia region. Is there sort of

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Speaker 1: a rating system or how does it work?

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Speaker 2: There is a rating system and there's an actual app

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Speaker 2: that you can download which will give you those ratings,

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Speaker 2: and that's called air Rata. One of it's got sensors

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Speaker 2: in out of springs, but there's none actually intend and creep,

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Speaker 2: but that does give you an approximate based on atmospheric

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Speaker 2: meetitions and at the moment they are rated very poor.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, which I can I'm not surprised by, you know,

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Speaker 1: given the fact that as we've touched on a lot

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Speaker 1: throughout the morning that those massive fires around the place,

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Speaker 1: it can mean, as you have obviously touched on if

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Speaker 1: you've got asthma or if you do have respiratory conditions,

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Speaker 1: that it can make it really quite difficult to breathe.

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Speaker 1: I know that I'm someone who suffers from asthma, and

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Speaker 1: sometimes even overnight you go to bed, you feel okay,

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Speaker 1: you wake up through the night and you can feel

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Speaker 1: yourself starting to wheeze, which does demonstrate just how important

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Speaker 1: it is to make sure you've got your puffer and

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Speaker 1: everything that you need.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, like the mean, it's really important if you've got

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Speaker 2: an asthma management plan to have your medications and follow

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Speaker 2: that plan.

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Speaker 1: What about people who don't have respiratory conditions, Are there

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Speaker 1: any risks to them or anything that they should be doing? Oh?

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Speaker 2: Definitely, I mean you should be minimizing your exposures to

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Speaker 2: this particular matter. It doesn't really matter who you are,

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Speaker 2: but people with other underlying illnesses like heart disease or

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Speaker 2: older adults or children are more succeptible.

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Speaker 1: Now we know that this morning really is for Central

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Speaker 1: Australia and also for the Barkley region, But how are

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Speaker 1: things going up here in the top end. I noted

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Speaker 1: yesterday afternoon it did seem quite hazy around the place.

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Speaker 1: What's the air quality like for us in the top

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Speaker 1: end at this point.

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Speaker 2: It's actually rated as fairly good at the moment, so

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Speaker 2: that doesn't mean it's fantastic, but it's traded fairly good,

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Speaker 2: which means yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: We should be all right, should be all right to

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Speaker 1: say outdoors, I suppose, and keep exercising, no excuse for us.

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Speaker 2: That's right.

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Speaker 1: Well, I really appreciate your time this morning, Tracy Ward,

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Speaker 1: the director of Environmental Health. It just finally, if anybody

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Speaker 1: is sort of after any additional info, is there somewhere

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Speaker 1: where they can head Do I know you mentioned that?

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Speaker 2: App Yeah, definitely secure. Entre has got lots of information.

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Speaker 2: They're around protecting yourself from bushfires Mike and also sotos

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Speaker 2: with nogs and Territory Health Department.

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Speaker 1: Website, all wonderful stuff. Tracy, I really appreciate your time

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Speaker 1: this morning. Thanks for having a chat with us. Thank you,

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Speaker 1: thank you,