Cape Town air quality 'affected by summer fires'

Air quality in Cape Town has deteriorated as a result of wild fires during the summer, it has been claimed.

Wildfires, which destroyed properties and vineyards, caused smoke to linger above the South African city between December 2008 and February 2009, AFP reports.

Air monitoring data from the city council revealed that there were a higher number of days over this period on which pollution levels were potentially hazardous compared to previous years.

Ivan Bromfield from Cape Town's health department said that the smoke caused a number of health problems and may even put people with respiratory and heart conditions at risk.

He explained: "Air pollution leads to more hospital admissions and visits to emergency departments, increasing the burden on the city's health care services. It also reduces productivity through lost working days."

His comments follow a study by the Institute of Epidemiology at the German Research Centre for Environmental Health in Neuherberg, which showed that exposure to traffic could trigger attacks in those at risk of cardiac arrests.