Key points
- Australia is one of the few developed nations without laws controlling how much pollution new vehicles can emit.
- Experts say Australia lacks robust figures about the true health effects of pollution from vehicles.
- Findings suggest vehicle emissions cause more than 11,000 premature deaths, 12,200 cardiovascular hospitalisations, 6800 respiratory hospitalisations and 66,000 childhood asthma cases a year.
Traffic pollution may be causing more than 11,000 deaths in Australia every year, a figure five times higher than previously estimated and 10 times the number who die in road crashes.
Leading health groups say urgent action is needed in light of growing evidence that suggests rates of heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, diabetes, childhood asthma and early death caused by road pollution have been vastly underestimated.
Lisel Thomas of Melbourne’s Yarraville believes traffic pollution makes her asthma worse.Credit:Simon Schluter
An expert position statement to be released by the Melbourne Climate Futures centre at the University of Melbourne on Friday says Australia has no robust figures about the true health impact of pollution from cars, trucks and other vehicles to guide policy decisions.
Fine particulate matter released from vehicle exhaust pipes can cause a range of respiratory, neurological and cardiovascular diseases, as well as adverse birth outcomes and diabetes.
Various estimates have previously suggested this exhaust-pipe pollution causes no more than 2000 deaths a year. But the new expert position statement says Australia has never considered the impact of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) from vehicle emissions.
“What we’re finding now from international studies is that they’re both important, and in particular, we’ve underestimated the harmful effects of nitrogen dioxide,” said Dr Vicki Kotsirilos, a GP and an associate professor at Western Sydney University, who reviewed the expert statement.
Experts say Australia has turned into a dumping ground for dirtier cars.Credit:Scott McNaughton
The estimate is based on the findings of a New Zealand government study released last year that considered the effects of NO₂ from vehicle pollution for the first time. NO₂ can cause respiratory damage, increasing the risk of infections, asthma and chronic lung disease.
That peer-reviewed research found 2200 people die prematurely in New Zealand every year due to the pollution – a conclusion the research team said startled even them.
Applied to Australia, the findings suggest vehicle emissions cause 11,105 premature deaths, 12,210 cardiovascular hospitalisations, 6840 respiratory hospitalisations, and 66,000 childhood asthma cases every year. Last year, 1187 people died on Australian roads
Lisel Thomas, who has lived in Yarraville for 20 years, said she was not surprised to hear the health cost of road pollution may have been underestimated. Residents in the inner-western Melbourne suburb live with heavy pollution from trucks serving the Port of Melbourne and higher than average rates of lung and heart conditions.
Estimates suggest exhaust-pipe pollution causes about 2000 deaths a year, but the real number could be significantly higher.Credit:Scott McNaughton
“We’ve got young families in this area, as well as other people with chronic health conditions being really badly impacted by something where there are solutions,” Thomas said. “It just makes me feel really upset that 20 years down the track, the problem is still here.”
Thomas, 55, said she believed road pollution triggered her asthma – she had a flare-up as soon as she returned home from overseas last week – and may have also caused her now-adult son to develop the condition.
Cities such as London, Tokyo, Beijing, Barcelona and Madrid have banned older, dirtier trucks from residential areas.
Thomas said that would be a good solution for her community if the issue was taken seriously.
“Part of having those things happen is people understanding, with hard data, what the impact is of cars and trucks and other vehicles on their health,” she said.
Australia is one of the only developed nations without laws controlling how much pollution new vehicles can emit, a situation experts say has turned the country into a dumping ground for dirtier cars. Average emissions from new passenger vehicles sold here are 45 per cent higher than for those sold in Europe, according federal environment department.
Melbourne University health and air pollution researcher Clare Walter, who co-authored the report, said Australia should conduct its own comprehensive research.
But she said there was no reason why the New Zealand results would not apply to Australia, considering the two countries have similar fuel quality, vehicle regulations, rates of urbanisation and underlying population health.
“There’s every reason to think the New Zealand figures, if anything, possibly underestimate the Australian context,” Walter said.
The Heart Foundation, Cancer Council, Kidney Health Australia, Diabetes Australia, the Stroke Foundation, the Lung Foundation and Asthma Australia have all endorsed the statement’s position.
The Albanese government has been working on introducing fuel efficiency standards and increasing Australia’s globally slow uptake of electric vehicles as part of its climate change policies. Passenger vehicles contribute about 10 per cent of Australia carbon emissions.
Western Sydney University’s Vicki Kotsirilos said that along with vehicle emissions standards, Australia had not implemented other strategies used elsewhere to limit the effect of vehicle emissions, such as “anti-idling” laws, low-emissions zones and pollution barriers around schools.
“As soon as we inform the public that these vehicle emissions are so toxic to human health, then all it takes is simple strategies,” Kotsirilos said.
Walter said the lack of recognition of the full cost of road pollution was leading to policy failures in government, from emissions standards to urban planning.
“We’ve got a lot of people that are affected by vehicle emissions, but I haven’t seen any sort of public awareness campaigns or preventative strategies,” Walter said.
“You wouldn’t put your child in a daycare centre with people smoking cigarettes indoors, but we’ve got no problem putting them next to a major road.”
Walter and Dr Kelvin Say wrote the report in consultation with Kotsirilos; Associate Professor Lou Irving, a respiratory physician at the MacCallum Cancer Centre; and Dr Ben Ewald and Dr Graeme McLeay from Doctors for the Environment Australia.
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