Australia began this year with one of the highest levels of air pollution in the world.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
We spent weeks blanketed in a bushfire smoke cloud that turned the sky dark. Our bushfires shocked the world.
Before the pandemic taking hold, the world's eyes were on Australia.
The health effects of the smoke were overwhelming for many of us, and the risk to our health kept us contained inside, well before lockdowns began.
This bushfire smoke contained coarse, fine and ultrafine particles. Ultrafine and fine pollution particles are small enough to enter the human body through the lungs. They enter the bloodstream and have been linked to heart disease, strokes, diabetes, stillbirth, premature and low birth weight babies. There are some early studies suggesting a link between small increases in fine particle pollution and increasing the severity and death rates of COVID19.
Even when we do not have orange haze and darkness due to thick smoke blankets, we are still being exposed to harmful air pollution in Australia due to anthropogenic causes. While the bushfires gave us weeks of record-breaking air pollution, the dominant source of some of the most harmful fine and ultrafine particles in Australia is coal-fired power stations.
The myth of clean coal is exactly that, a myth.
The myth of clean coal is exactly that, a myth.
It has been calculated that the air pollution from our bushfires led to more than 400 additional deaths. Thousands more will suffer from worsened lung and heart disease. There will be additional children suffering from asthma. Children will be born at a lower birth weight; more will be born premature.
Air pollution in Australia is responsible for $2.6 billion in health costs. Almost 5000 Australians die every year as a result of our air pollution.
We are likely to see ongoing major air pollution events as a part of future catastrophic bushfires. There is already warming locked in with current carbon dioxide levels and we know this will lead to more frequent extreme weather events.
A national response is required to ensure that we minimise the damage.
The National Pollutant Inventory revealed that 25 per cent of Australia's fine particle pollution and all of the Upper Hunter Valley's sulphur dioxide comes from coal-fired power stations. We have some of the most polluting stations here in the Hunter.
IN OTHER NEWS
We already know that Singleton and Muswellbrook are among the worst postcodes in the country for air pollution. There is a combination of coarse particle pollution from open-cut coal mines and land clearing, combined with fine and ultrafine particles from Liddell and Bayswater.
Liddell is inexplicably licensed by the NSW EPA to emit almost three times the international standard for nitrogen oxide. Load-based licensing schemes, where polluters pay an amount based on pollution generated, fails to even include coal mining operations, the biggest commercial contributor to particle pollution.
The Hunter, like some areas of NSW, has a comprehensive air quality monitoring network. We can pinpoint sources of pollution due to prevailing wind patterns and differing levels at receivers. Last year there were more than 600 exceedances of the air quality standards, well before the bushfire smoke arrived in October/November.
But many areas of NSW do not have the quality of monitoring the Hunter has.
The NPI report by Delta Electricity reveals that in 2018-2019 there was a 181 per cent increase in fine particle emissions from Vales Point Power Station. It has increased 3000 per cent since 2012. Lake Macquarie residents should not be spending the time between bushfire haze and smoke breathing high levels of sulphur dioxide and other harmful chemicals from Vales Point.
Many of these ageing power stations will see the end of their life as more renewables enter the market, reducing costs of wind and solar power, and accelerating requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the meantime, we need an air quality monitoring station in Lake Macquarie that accurately measures pollution from Vales Point.
We also need the EPA and the Minister for Energy and Environment, Matt Kean, to release a clean air strategy for NSW that has the power to reduce pollution from the major contributors. The NSW EPA has been sitting on a draft policy for many years, but a draft is meaningless and ineffective.
A clean air strategy could force proper pollution controls onto power stations.
It could implement a fairer system of making all polluters pay for their contribution, a much more effective method than small fines many months after an environmental violation.
We need action urgently. Our communities deserve clean air, and our children will thank us for it.
Dr Bob Vickers is a Singleton GP obstetrician and a member of Doctors for the Environment Australia and Healthcare For Clean Air
While you're with us, did you know the Newcastle Herald offers breaking news alerts, daily email newsletters and more? Keep up to date with all the local news - sign up here
