BLUE MOUNTAINS UNIONS AND COMMUNITY NEWS RELEASE...18/7/18
The news that the Blue Mountains is to get extensive air monitoring for the first time has been welcomed by the community group pushing for action over pollution caused by the hundreds of huge coal trains that travel over the mountains every month.
The high number of 60 wagon long coal trains passing through the Blue Mountains was revealed by the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year after questions from the BMUC's Cover the Coal Wagons Group.
On a weekday the figure for loaded trains was 15-16, rising to 22 at weekends. Empty coal trains Monday- Friday number 19-20 and on week-ends 23-24.
Coal wagons are routinely covered in Queensland and Europe and doctors from the public health group - Doctors for the Environment - warned a BMUC meeting in Katoomba last year that pollution from coal trains can contribute to heart disease, lung disease, asthma and some cancers.
"We welcome the air monitoring as a first step", said Peter Lammiman , co-ordinator of CTCWG, ''and we look forward to finding more about it. We regard air quality as an important public health issue which affects everyone in the community - it's an issue that needs to be above politics.
"We look forward to finding out more from the EPA and the Office of Environment and Heritage about this project - the type of monitors, where they'll be positioned and what they'll deliver.
"We note that the EPA is keen to involve stakeholders from the community - and with this goal in mind we encourage the EPA to hold a public forum to inform the community and gain feedback before the monitoring group is established"
"While it was made clear early in our negotiations that the Blue Mountains will not be getting monitors capable of establishing the level of coal dust specifically, or in deed pollution from diesel fumes that many believe to be a bigger problem - we look forward to seeing what these monitors can deliver"
The announcement that the Blue Mountains is to get air quality monitoring for the first time is in contrast to Newcastle and the Illawarra where extensive monitoring has been happening for years.
The importance of fresh air was reinforced earlier this week when Fairfax* newspapers reported that days of severe pollution in Australia's biggest cities will worsen in coming decades.
Professor Jason Evans at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes said that with more than 3000 premature deaths a year in Australia linked to urban air pollution, worsening low-level air quality could increase the toll.
Further evidence of the high cost of air pollution came from a US study which reported in the respected medical journal Lancet Planetary Health that air pollution could be responsible for 3.2 million new cases of type 2 diabetes every year globally.
"We estimate that about 14 per cent of diabetes in the world occurs because of higher levels of air pollution, that's one in seven cases", said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of Washington University.
"There is emerging evidence over the past several years that particulates, when they are small enough, make their way through the lungs to the blood vessels. They go to the liver, they go to the pancreas, they go to the kidneys."
The nearest air monitoring stations to the Blue Mountains at present are at Bathurst and St. Mary's.
"We're only just beginning to learn about the true cost of air pollution", said Mr. Lammiman.
"We were excited to learn when we first spoke to the EPA that data from a monitor in the mountains could be made available to the public to access online at any time.
"We know that fresh air is one of the reasons so many people visit the world heritage listed Blue Mountains National Park - through this project we should begin to find out just how clean our air is, and what we can do to ensure it's fresh and unpolluted".
* SMH 16 July 2018 Article by Peter Hanna
The news that the Blue Mountains is to get extensive air monitoring for the first time has been welcomed by the community group pushing for action over pollution caused by the hundreds of huge coal trains that travel over the mountains every month.
The high number of 60 wagon long coal trains passing through the Blue Mountains was revealed by the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year after questions from the BMUC's Cover the Coal Wagons Group.
On a weekday the figure for loaded trains was 15-16, rising to 22 at weekends. Empty coal trains Monday- Friday number 19-20 and on week-ends 23-24.
Coal wagons are routinely covered in Queensland and Europe and doctors from the public health group - Doctors for the Environment - warned a BMUC meeting in Katoomba last year that pollution from coal trains can contribute to heart disease, lung disease, asthma and some cancers.
"We welcome the air monitoring as a first step", said Peter Lammiman , co-ordinator of CTCWG, ''and we look forward to finding more about it. We regard air quality as an important public health issue which affects everyone in the community - it's an issue that needs to be above politics.
"We look forward to finding out more from the EPA and the Office of Environment and Heritage about this project - the type of monitors, where they'll be positioned and what they'll deliver.
"We note that the EPA is keen to involve stakeholders from the community - and with this goal in mind we encourage the EPA to hold a public forum to inform the community and gain feedback before the monitoring group is established"
"While it was made clear early in our negotiations that the Blue Mountains will not be getting monitors capable of establishing the level of coal dust specifically, or in deed pollution from diesel fumes that many believe to be a bigger problem - we look forward to seeing what these monitors can deliver"
The announcement that the Blue Mountains is to get air quality monitoring for the first time is in contrast to Newcastle and the Illawarra where extensive monitoring has been happening for years.
The importance of fresh air was reinforced earlier this week when Fairfax* newspapers reported that days of severe pollution in Australia's biggest cities will worsen in coming decades.
Professor Jason Evans at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes said that with more than 3000 premature deaths a year in Australia linked to urban air pollution, worsening low-level air quality could increase the toll.
Further evidence of the high cost of air pollution came from a US study which reported in the respected medical journal Lancet Planetary Health that air pollution could be responsible for 3.2 million new cases of type 2 diabetes every year globally.
"We estimate that about 14 per cent of diabetes in the world occurs because of higher levels of air pollution, that's one in seven cases", said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of Washington University.
"There is emerging evidence over the past several years that particulates, when they are small enough, make their way through the lungs to the blood vessels. They go to the liver, they go to the pancreas, they go to the kidneys."
The nearest air monitoring stations to the Blue Mountains at present are at Bathurst and St. Mary's.
"We're only just beginning to learn about the true cost of air pollution", said Mr. Lammiman.
"We were excited to learn when we first spoke to the EPA that data from a monitor in the mountains could be made available to the public to access online at any time.
"We know that fresh air is one of the reasons so many people visit the world heritage listed Blue Mountains National Park - through this project we should begin to find out just how clean our air is, and what we can do to ensure it's fresh and unpolluted".
* SMH 16 July 2018 Article by Peter Hanna
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