KEY POINTS:
A visiting Australian expert yesterday labelled the health fallout from fossil fuels the next asbestos scandal and said the Government's biofuel announcement was an "absolute pittance".
Dr Ray Kearney, a University of Sydney department of infectious diseases and immunology associate professor, spoke yesterday as part of a visit organised by The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall's Tindall Foundation.
It was timed to coincide with the Government's announcements on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Dr Kearney called for the widespread introduction of biofuel blends he claimed could reduce carbon dioxide emissions and the amount of "health threatening" particles in the air.
He said air pollution was estimated to kill more than 430 Aucklanders a year and around the same number of people in the rest of New Zealand.
Among the conditions associated with exhaust pollution were heart disease, lung cancer and more severe asthma, said Dr Kearney.
He said governments around the world had applied "only tokenism" to the problems despite having data for years.
"Be warned, we are following the same pathway as the tobacco scandal, as the asbestos scandal," said Dr Kearney.
"Last year, class actions were undertaken by the states of America to sue the American Government as a result of the impacts of pollution on the community."
Dr Kearney said the Government needed legislation to force oil companies to sell a biofuel alternative at the bowser in New Zealand but the 3.4 per cent target announced yesterday was too low.
"It needs to be 10 per cent to make any kind of difference whatsoever," he said.
"New Zealand lags the world in comparison with countries such as Brazil, the US and Canada."
He said modern cars would not need to be modified to run on E10 - a 10 per cent ethanol petrol blend - and the fuel would not damage vehicles.
Mr Tindall, whose wealth was estimated in last year's NBR Rich List at $412 million, said he had been interested in biofuels for a decade and laughed off a suggestion he was being dubbed New Zealand's Al Gore.
Mr Tindall invested in biofuel company LanzaTech, which was set up in 2005 to produce bioethanol for use as a transport fuel.
He praised the security of supply and health benefits of alternative fuels and said the public would not have a problem using fuel produced from tallow, corn or sewage as long as it was reliable.
