Home heating contributes to air pollution in the Bay of Plenty. Photo / Warren Buckland
Hundreds of people are dying an early death due to the impact of air pollution on their health, a study has found.
New government-funded research has shown air pollution in 2016 generated by humans resulted in 3300 premature adult deaths in New Zealand.
These included 107 deaths in Tauranga for that year, 59 in Rotorua, 22 in the Western Bay, 18 in Whakatāne, five in Kawerau, and four in Ōpōtiki.
The research, commissioned in 2019, found about 2000 of the national deaths were linked to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution, mostly from motor vehicles, while about 1300 were associated with fine particulate pollution (PM2.5).
The latter was mostly down to domestic fires.
Information on the Land Air Water Aotearoa website says while air quality in the region was generally good, areas like Rotorua and the Mount Maunganui industrial area have problems with fine dust and other contaminants.
In Rotorua this was primarily over winter due to smoke from solid-fuel burners used for home heating, and air quality was a year-round issue in the Mount Maunganui industrial area but primarily over summer when the wind picked up.
The research findings came as no surprise to Joel Ngatuere, environment spokesman for Whareroa Marae.
"We've been saying this for years now."
The harbourside marae and its collection of homes and offices, sit off State Highway 2 in the Mount industrial area.
Public health authorities have also raised concerns about the harm air quality in the area was doing to people's health, and the marae is one of several spots where pollution levels are monitored.
Ngatuere said there would not be one week where they would not notice air pollution impacting on their health.
"Kids are having asthma attacks, just sitting drawing outside."
The Health and Air Pollution in New Zealand 2016 co-author and Emission Impossible director Dr Gerda Kuschel said the study was based on 2016 as that was the year it had complete sets of air quality monitoring data, population data and health data.
"We have had a preliminary look at 2019 now that more recent data are available and the early indication is that air pollution health effects have improved by 2.4 per cent."
Both PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide concentrations have dropped since 2016, nitrogen dioxide more appreciably, she said.
"This study now provides us with robust data to help with assessing the effectiveness of any options for improving New Zealand's air quality going forward.
"There is the opportunity to use the results to assess not only the climate change benefits of any initiatives but also the impact on harmful emissions and human health, giving us win-wins."
The study was undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team of air quality, public health, epidemiological, economic and communications researchers.
Through the process they found NO2 had a much more significant impact than expected.
She said that process had been "rigorous" and resource-intensive, which was why it took three years to complete.
Hospitalisations in the Bay due to air pollution were also in the hundreds: in 2016 there were 387 in Tauranga and 288 in Rotorua.
The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation New Zealand chief executive Letitia Harding said the report gave important insight.
"Keeping track of this data is vital, as it has a real impact on the health of the 700,000 New Zealanders living with respiratory conditions."
She said New Zealand has one of the highest rates of asthma in the world, and for this to change there was a need to look at a whole range of factors including environmental factors like air pollution and the state of housing stock.
While it recorded data on respiratory conditions across the regions, the causes varied and included other factors like smoking and access to equitable medical care as well as air pollution.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council regulatory services acting general manager Reuben Fraser said protecting and improving air quality for the health of our environment and communities was a priority.
It had several air quality initiatives in place, including the Mount Industrial Programme and Rotorua Air Quality initiatives.
"From our monitoring data, we can see that the air quality has improved in both areas over recent years but there is still more to be done."
He said it and the Rotorua community were working for better air quality in the airshed, which had improved over the years as people replaced their old smoky fires.
"However, to protect the health of the community, and Rotorua's reputation as a safe, clean tourist destination it's important to continue this work. The cleaner the air, the healthier the community."
In the Mount Maunganui Industrial Area he said it committed to spending $500,000 a year to accurately monitor air quality in the industrial area where pollution was most concentrated.
The key challenge to managing air pollution in this area is the proximity of industrial zoned land to residential zoned land. This included the Whareroa Marae and Mount Maunganui residential areas.
He said local councils were responsible for land zoning, but it was a complex situation generations in the making.
"We are proactively working with iwi and stakeholders to help improve the air quality."
The report provided a good snapshot, he said, but there is still more to do to improve air quality.
But he said gains to date in reducing particulate matter concentrations showed that its efforts can make a difference.
"We all have a role to play in the quality of our air by using clean heating where possible and burning smokefree, reducing outdoor burning, cutting our transport emissions, and reporting pollution to regional and unitary councils for investigation."
Work in Rotorua included the use of its new infrared camera technology that was to find non-compliant wood burners being used in the airshed.
Compliance officers had been working over the past month doing so, but council could not confirm the exact number of homes with non-compliant burners.
Associate environment minister Phil Twyford said the study's key findings that health impacts from air pollution can occur at low levels, and that many New Zealanders are exposed to air pollution, are unlikely to have changed appreciably since 2016.
However, the research did not account for changes to air pollutants or health risks due to the pandemic – nor for the range of climate change initiatives the Government had introduced, he said.
But the research was still relevant, he said: "Absent the Covid pandemic, I would expect the findings of the study to be relevant today, though with some adjustment for changes to population, air pollution levels and emissions since then."
The information was "extremely useful" and showed the impact of air pollution even at low levels.
"This is further reinforced by the 2021 WHO guidelines which show that virtually any level of air pollution is detrimental to the health of New Zealanders."
Toi Te Ora Public Health welcomed the update on the health effects of air pollution, but wanted to thoroughly review the findings before commenting on them.
Local Democracy Reporting obtained the decision through the court.