Issue 154 28 November, 2018
Your independent community newspaper - Ph: 4325 7369
Environment report finds that hundreds of people are dying premature deaths ublicly available air quality monitoring should be conducted at Wyee, a community with an aging coal-fired power station, but with no current air m o n i t o r i n g , according to a new report into the health burden of fine particle pollution from coal-fired power stations.
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According to the report, over the remaining 12 years of operational life for Vales Point, it will result in 547 additional deaths, 475 lower birth weight babies, and 709 additional cases of new onset diabetes. In the remaining 12 years of operation for Eraring, it will lead to 1,219 additional expected deaths, 1,058 low birth weight babies, and 1,579 additional cases of new onset diabetes. Local residents will have an opportunity to discuss the findings of the report at a public forum on Thursday, November 29. The report’s author, Dr Ben Ewald, Senior Lecturer at the University of Newcastle’s Centre for Clinical Epidemiology
Dr Ben Ewald and Biostatistics, and, Dr James Whelan, from Environmental Justice Australia (EJA), will be guest speakers at the meeting, to be held at the Wyee Community Hall from 6:30 to 8:00pm. Mike Campbell from the Community Environment Network (CEN) will also speak at the meeting. EJA recently commissioned the report into the health impacts of air pollution from NSW power stations.
It is the first report of its kind in Australia. The report found that coal-fired power stations are one of the biggest sources of air pollution in Australia, causing asthma and other respiratory problems, reduced birthweight, diabetes and premature death. It concluded that public health is impacted in communities near power stations and up to 200km away, and that air pollution is poorly
controlled in NSW. Vales Point Power Station, at Mannering Park, is the only one out of the five still operating in NSW that is located within the Central Coast local government area, but the nearby Eraring Power Station, in the Lake Macquarie LGA, would, according to the report, also have detrimental health impacts on the Central Coast community. “The form of pollution that has the strongest
effect on health is fine particles (PM2.5) and one of the major sources of PM2.5 in the Sydney Greater Metropolitan region is burning coal for electricity,” the report said. “Eraring and Vales Point … make the largest contribution to the health burden from power generation, since prevailing weather patterns are most likely to carry pollutants from these sources into the Sydney basin where
the largest population resides,” it said. “The continued operation of all the coalfired generators in NSW imposes a substantial health burden that could be alleviated by imposing stricter licensing conditions for operators that would require postcombustion capture of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx), or by bringing forward closure of plants.” “It’s shocking to think that based on the current operating life of the five power stations, the air pollution they produce will kill 3,429 more people,” Ewald said. “As a Newcastle doctor, I knew that air pollution from coal fired power stations is harming local communities, but as a researcher, I never imagined that the scale of their impact would be so severe,” he said. “Literally hundreds of people are dying premature deaths every year because of coalfired power.” The study coincides with the review of pollution licences for the Vales Point and Eraring Power Stations.
Office: 3 Amy Close, Wyong Phone: 4325 7369 Mail: PO Box 1056, Gosford 2250 E-mail: editorial@centralcoastnews.net Website: www.centralcoastnews.net
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