The Biomass Smoke Validated Events Database

The Biomass Smoke Validated Events Database is an open and extensible data collection recording historical spikes in air pollution and validation of whether they were caused by biomass smoke (e.g. from burning vegetation or forest fires). This collection contains validated events of extreme biomass smoke pollution across several major urban centres and smaller regional towns in the Australian States of New South Wales, Western Australia, and Tasmania that are intermittently affected by extreme episodes of biomass smoke. The collection provides researchers with tools that allow them either to add new data, or to use the existing data to study new statistical associations between pollution spikes and health outcomes around those days. Exposure to smoke from biomass burning is a contributor to morbidity and mortality in groups susceptible to the health effects of smoke. Researchers are invited to extend the database with new events or additional data for already identified events.