Mount Maunganui air quality: Tauranga, Bay of Plenty councils seek review of Toi Te Ora health report

Mount Maunganui's industrial area is near residential areas and public spaces such as sportsfields. Photo / NZME

Two councils are seeking an independent review of a health study that linked air pollution in Mount Maunganui’s industrial area to premature deaths.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Tauranga City Council have agreed to commission a report this month seeking to “understand” the reliability of the study published by Toi Te Ora Public Health Organisation and Te Whatu Ora - Health NZ.

The report, released in July, showed poor air quality at Mount Maunganui was creating significant health risks and premature deaths. It summarised data findings from 2019 to 2022 that focused on particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) and sulphur dioxide. PM10 are particles suspended in the air less than 10 micrograms wide and can be harmful when inhaled.

The report found modelling for PM10 (only) contributed to an estimated 13 premature deaths in Mount Maunganui each year.

It also found PM10 within the Mount Maunganui Industrial Airshed, introduced in 2019 aiming to improve air quality, was still high and exceeded World Health Organisation guidelines.

At the time, Toi Te Ora medical officer of health Jim Miller said air pollution in Mount Maunganui was among the worst in New Zealand.

The report estimated the social cost of the premature deaths and ailments was $22 million.

In September, Clear the Air’s Emma Jones told a regional council meeting she was concerned “industry” would commission its own experts to try to debunk the Toi Te Ora report. She pleaded with councillors to be mindful of this when considering Mount Maunganui’s air quality in the future.

“If industry is paying experts to try to debunk the report, if that comes to the table, that has to be taken in the context that it’s being paid for,” Jones told the meeting.

“You guys are all we’ve got as a community. That’s all I’m trying to say. Yes, follow the science - the science is air pollution is harmful to human health and Mount Maunganui has an air pollution problem.”

The regional council is responsible for managing local air quality while the city council oversees resource or building consents including those affecting air quality.

The regional council and city council are seeking to commission a review of the report to “understand the extent to which the findings within the report can be relied upon ...”.

The Mount Maunganui Airshed boundaries are outlined in red. Image/BOPRC

Regional council general manager of regulatory services Reuben Fraser said the Toi Te Ora findings were consistent with the information that “instigated the programmes of work by regional council to improve air quality”.

Work included updating air quality rules for the airshed, industrial audits, dust and odour management plans, monitoring, managing a pollution hotline and resource consenting.

“The health report provides another important layer of information that will help inform the way forward and both councils welcome the findings.”

Fraser said the regional council would continue to work with the Mount Maunganui Air Quality Working Party and report updates through the Monitoring and Operations Committee, which meets again on November 30.

It was also working with the city council on the review to help better understand how the Toi Te Ora report findings can support existing work programmes “or whether they might require further assessment”, Fraser said.

City council general manager of regulatory and compliance Sarah Omundsen said “industry parties” played no role in the decision of the councils to commission a peer review, which she expected to be commissioned this month and made available next year.

Emma Jones of Clear the Air charitable trust speaks at a Bay of Plenty Regional Council meeting on air quality at Mount Maunganui. Photo / Alex Cairns

Omundsen said the review would help with future decision-making as part of the councils’ regulatory roles. It would also help the councils “in addressing the findings” of the Toi Te Ora report.

“The councils recognise the air quality issues within the Mount and associated health impacts and will continue to move forward with actions to reduce the impacts.

“The purpose of the review is to understand the extent to which the findings within the report can be relied upon for future decision-making to support policy changes. This will also assist us to identify any further areas of evidence or research that we need to bring together to support these processes,” Omundesen said.

The likely cost of the review was not known.

Kiri Gillespie is an assistant news director and a senior journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, specialising in local politics and city issues. She was a finalist for the Voyager Media Awards Regional Journalist of the Year in 2021.