00:00 As the East Coast choked through black summer, asthmatics suffered.
00:07 It was in and out of hospital all the time. We had bought new air purifiers and things like that for the house.
00:12 I would kind of limit going outside at all.
00:15 But in the nation's capital, even the ICU wasn't safe.
00:18 The smoke was so bad at that time that it actually set off the fire alarms and no one knew what was happening.
00:24 So with the risk of fires and smoke always a possibility, Eloise is preparing her defences.
00:30 I'll be doubling all of my preventers on particularly bad days.
00:35 Potentially I'll have to follow my asthma plan which includes medicinal steroids like prednisolone.
00:41 This room with three air purifiers will be her retreat.
00:44 There'll be days where I'm definitely closing up and just staying inside.
00:48 Experts want people to remember black summer and get ready early in case it happens again.
00:53 Think about the gaps under your doors, your windows, any air vents, cover them up.
00:58 It's important to have not only a clean air room in the house but also a backup in case that fails.
01:03 So thinking about places of safety and cleaner air and cooler air, so public spaces.
01:10 In Canberra at least, the government says it learned from black summer.
01:13 It is around looking at ways that we can reduce the impact within our own homes but also where we can seek refuge.
01:20 New homes are being better sealed and plans are being made for clubs to be refuges.
01:25 We're going through the process of identifying clubs that could be part of that program.
01:29 More up to date air quality monitoring in line with new national standards is expected.
01:34 There was a lot of work with all the jurisdictions to harmonise the way we categorise air quality.
01:40 So a lot of our reporting has changed as a result of that.
01:43 The data will be easier to understand as well as more frequently updated.
01:47 It's just really important for us to make sure that we have good quality data coming through.
01:52 We'll be able to give people very specific calls to action around what our recommendations are for what they can and shouldn't be doing as the air quality gets worse.
02:01 But there's only so much that can be done.
02:03 That is a really frightening element of climate crisis. It is, at the individual level, it is beyond our control.
02:09 A chilling thought as our weather continues to warm up.
02:12 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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