Annick Ahlan has got used to managing her chronic asthma condition. That was before the month-long bushfire emergency that has struck much of Australia choked her home city of Sydney in a blanket of toxic smoke. 

“We close up our house, put the air conditioning on 24/7 and use the purifier but the smoke keeps seeping into the house,” said Ms Ahlan, who contracted bronchitis last week after one of the most hazardous days. “Schools should be handing out face masks, employers should allow people to work from their homes and the government needs to do more,” she added. 

Ms Ahlan’s experience is a daily reality for many in Australia’s biggest city as more than a 100 bushfires burn across the state of New South Wales, spreading dangerous particulates into the air.

The air quality in Sydney — a city famed for its outdoor lifestyle — has soared 11 times higher than the maximum “hazardous” threshold, causing hospital admissions related to breathing problems to almost double compared with the five year average.

Medical groups, including the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, have declared a public health emergency warning of the risks of premature births, underweight babies, asthma, heart disease, stroke and lung cancer linked to air pollution.

It will have an impact on decisions by tourists because they don’t want to come here if they can’t see Sydney harbour bridge

“Almost a third of my patients are suffering more shortness of breath than usual and experiencing more difficulty in day-to-day activities,” said Arnagretta Hunter, a Sydney-based cardiologist.

“Many are not able to exercise due to the hazardous air, which has a detrimental impact on people with chronic health problems.”

Even fit and healthy Sydney residents, including children, have taken to wearing protective face masks to filter out fine particulates in bushfire smoke that inflame the lungs and irritate eyes and throats.

There is little sign of respite as Australia bakes under a record breaking heatwave that makes fighting wildfires, which have burnt through more than 2m hectares of land and killed eight people, extremely difficult to control.

Two fire fighters were killed and several others seriously injured on Thursday and the New South Wales’ premier declared a seven-day state of emergency.

There are signs the crisis is spreading nationwide. Dense bushfire smoke set off fire alarms in the offices of state broadcaster ABC in the capital Canberra this week just before a nightly news bulletin.

Authorities in the western city of Perth have had to cancel their Christmas fireworks display because of extreme temperatures and a total fire ban.

A debate is now raging about whether Sydney’s world famous New Year’s Eve fireworks display should go ahead, with a petition urging that the money should be instead spent on exhausted firefighters tackling the blazes. 

Fire chiefs say the wildfires encircling Sydney could take months to extinguish because of tinder dry conditions caused by drought, leaving the city’s 5m residents exposed to smoke for a prolonged period.

Scientists believe the more severe weather associated with climate change mean this year’s emergency is likely to become the “new normal” for the city. 

“This is a big moment in bushfire management because what used to work, such as back burning to reduce fuel loads, just isn’t working any more,” said David Bowman, professor of pyrogeography and fire science at University of Tasmania. “In the short term we need to equip the community to manage their exposure to smoke and fire.” 

Experts say the increased threat of bushfires and air pollution requires big changes to how Australians live, including smarter town planning and house design; the creation of clean air spaces within communities; better air quality monitoring; and provision of information to the public in real time.

But adapting to this new reality is challenging in a vast country with poorly insulated housing stock and a government that has consistently prioritised economic growth over tackling climate change.

“Australian houses tend to leak like a sieve, with big health implications for people who are ill,” said Amanda Wheeler, a health researcher at Australian Catholic University. 

Following a bushfire emergency in Tasmania last year, Ms Wheeler was part of a team which conducted tests on air purifiers that found wide disparities on their effectiveness linked to insulation. Smoke levels were reduced in homes by between 25-80 per cent depending on their leakiness, she said.

As the smog crisis has raged this week, Scott Morrison, Australia’s prime minister, has attracted strong criticism for taking a holiday overseas. Demonstrators held up placards outside his official residence this week asking: “Where the bloody hell are you?” — a campaign slogan that Mr Morrison commissioned in his previous role as head of Tourism Australia. 

Tourism is one of many industries feeling the impact of the bushfire emergency, prompting industry chiefs to ask people to think twice before cancelling holidays in areas near bushfires that are dependent on tourism. But vivid photographs of Sydney cloaked in smog circulating on social media is not a good calling card. 

“It will have an impact on decisions by tourists because they don’t want to come here if they can’t see Sydney harbour bridge,” said Ms Wheeler.

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