News Items

News Item - November 2006

"Air pollution deaths 'outnumber road toll' in Sydney."

The NSW Government has recently published a committee report titled the
"Health impacts of air pollution in the Sydney Basin".

The Chair of the Committee reporting, the Hon Robyn Parker MLC, stated ""Sydney is a beautiful place to live, but the physical features that make it beautiful also help make our air pollution the worst in Australia. Air pollution is more than irritating - it's life threatening, and contributes to 600-1,400 deaths per year in Sydney alone."

These figures are only related to particulate matter pollution and its impact on people who suffer diseases such as asthma, chronic airways diseases and cardiovascular diseases.

Particulate matter is just one of the six main pollutants discussed in the report.

In March 2004 Dr Tom Beer from CSIRO Atmospheric Research, stated that "Each year on average, 2400 of the 140,000 Australians deaths are linked to air quality and health issues - much more than the 1700 people who die on our roads. That's an average of a death every four hours. This number increases if long-term effects of air toxics on cancer are included."

• Read the Press Release  pub. November 16th 2006.
  
  
• Read the Full Report.   pub. November 16th 2006.
  
  
• Read the CSIRO press release  pub. Mar 2004.