Queensland Laboratory News Details
Dust Storm in South East Queensland
Added: 23 September, 2009
An eerie fog of dust blanketed South East Queensland Today, reducing
visibility to less than 150m, and bringing flights, traffic, job sites, and cranes to a standstill in
places as people hoped for the best
to nose through the surreal conditions.
While the haze kept
temperatures below the forecast 30-plus maximum, it also hampered
efforts by firefighters to use aerial water bombers to contain blazes
whipped up the winds that had driven the dust into the city.
A strong wind change, later in the afternoon, compound the already dangerous conditions on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts and in Brisbane, where fire crews were monitoring a string of outbreaks.
Queensland Laboratory has been conducting air monitoring across the region with a number of ambient and indoor air monitoring stations set up to measure occupational and environmental dust concentrations. For more information on the dust or the potential health effects, contact Queensland Laboratory on 1300 138 366