Air quality complaints declined last winter

The Wanganui District Council received 31 complaints about air pollution last winter, most related to incinerator fires. That was down on the previous winter's 44 complaints, according to district council figures.

Environmental health officer Therese Back said the council investigated complaints and gave advice to those who needed it.

The advice was about materials acceptable to burn, when to burn and how to safely burn.

She said the burning of accelerants such as tyres, plastics and green vegetation was prohibited. Council advised people to take their recyclable plastics and old tyres to the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre.

Green waste could be disposed of at the centre, at Midtown Transfer and Recycling Depot or Budget Waste Removal.

Ms Back said that the council was able to prosecute for air pollution from fires, but preferred to educate people.

It had written to people about court action if breaches continued, but no one had been prosecuted.

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research scientist Dr Guy Coulson says poor air quality remains a health threat.

He said raised levels of smoke and soot - known as PM10 - caused about 1000 premature deaths each year in New Zealand costing an estimated billion dollars.

Some of the illnesses caused by poor air quality were respiratory. Over the past decade, an association had been found between pollution and cardiac problems, he said.

Regional councils were required to measure air quality in areas where it was likely to breach regulations but those measurements did not answer questions about individual exposure.