Air pollution is claiming the lives of nearly 1600 people a year in Australia’s major capital cities, a new report says.
Long-time residents in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and south-east Queensland, including Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Ipswich, will continue to have a shorter life expectancy, a health risk assessment released by the National Environment Protection Council shows, because of their ongoing exposure to man-made air pollution.
The council released the report as part of its work developing mandatory national standards for fine particle emissions.
The authors of the health study found that long-time Sydney residents would have their lives reduced by an estimated 72 days for men and 65 days for women by ongoing inhalation of fine particle pollution. Residents in Melbourne, Perth and south-east Queensland faced the same risks as well as a higher rate of asthma and cardiovascular-related hospitalisations.
Based on 2008 levels, fine particle pollution led to an estimated 570 annual deaths in Melbourne, 520 in Sydney, 247 in south-east Queensland and 247 in Perth.
The composition of air pollution in each of the cities is unique. However, emissions from motor vehicles, particularly diesel, coal-fired power, solid fuel heaters and heavy industry have been identified as main contributors. Bushfires contributed to the pollution but only episodically.
The concentration of the particles varies during the seasons but, as a whole, fine particle pollution has serious health implications. A study published in the Environmental Research Letters journal found that 2.1 million people worldwide died prematurely each year because of fine particle pollution, which are particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres in diameter. Most deaths were from cardiopulmonary disease and a smaller percentage from lung cancer.
One of the Australian report’s authors, Geoff Morgan, said the the concept of "attributable cases" due to air pollution exposure was central to estimating its health impact and health burden.
He said these estimates did not take into account the impact of fine particle air pollution with other respiratory problems, increased medication use and school or work absence.
"Unlike deaths due to traffic accidents, the impacts of air pollution on health cannot be directly counted, but must be evaluated from estimates of health risk based on scientific research," Associate Professor Morgan said.
"Man-made urban air pollution is associated with a whole range of health risks.
"By international standards Australia’s air pollution is relatively low. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do anything. We still should reduce because there are benefits to be gained."
The health risk assessment report, a collaboration between the University of Sydney, Southern Cross University, the University of Western Sydney and University of Wollongong, found if the amount of fine particle pollution was reduced by up to 17 per cent the impacts would be immediate. The researchers estimated that in the first year of reduced exposure, there would be 140 fewer deaths in Sydney.
Associate Professor Morgan said pollutants in the air could be solid or liquid particles in suspension, or gases. He said the airborne particles of primary concern were 10 µm or less in size, referred to as PM10, and a subgroup of finer particles referred to as PM2.5, which are less than 2.5 µm in size.
Gaseous pollutants include ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide.
He said said there was no evidence of a threshold concentration below which adverse health effects of particulates were not observed.
The health effects associated with exposure to these pollutants range from small, temporary changes in the respiratory tract and impaired lung function, to symptoms so serious they can lead to death. The consequences for people’s health include restricted activity or reduced performance, hospital emergency department visits, or hospital admissions.
