A report on Aotearoa’s air quality has been released today.
The Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand has just released the latest three yearly report, Our Air 2024. The report includes data on air pollution levels and recent research on the impacts of air quality – including light, odour, and noise pollution.
The report finds that transport and home heating are major polluters in Aotearoa, and climate change is likely to increase levels of pollen, wildfire smoke, and windblown dust.
Although air quality is improving at most monitored sites, research shows there’s no ‘safe level’ for most pollutants. Their impacts disproportionately affect Māori, Pacific people, children, the elderly, and those in deprived areas.
The Science Media Centre asked experts to comment. Feel free to use these comments in your reporting or follow up with the contact details provided.
Dr Joel Rindelaub, Senior Lecturer, School of Chemical Sciences, The University of Auckland, comments:
“Air pollution remains a major issue in Aotearoa, accounting for more than 3,200 premature deaths per year. For reference, that’s more deaths than melanoma, diabetes, colon cancer, and road accidents combined.
“When using the latest statistical value of human life from NZTA, the social costs of air pollution are more than $40 billion annually, which is actually an underestimation because it doesn’t account for many of the health effects of air pollution, such as the impact on the brain and its development.
“Air pollution regulations typically have a massive benefit-to-cost ratio, saving roughly $10 for every $1 spent. Yet here in Aotearoa, we are still behind much of the developed world when it comes to regulating air pollution.
“Since we know air pollution affects brain function and intelligence levels, we could literally be making ourselves dumber by not addressing poor air quality. ”
No conflicts of interest.
Professor Simon Hales, Epidemiologist, University of Otago, Wellington comments:
“The Ministry for the Environment report, “Our Air 2024” estimates that in New Zealand, in 2019, approximately 1 in 10 deaths were attributable to air pollution, at an estimated social cost of over $15 billion. About two-thirds of these (about 2000 deaths) were attributed to Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions from vehicles, and the remainder from fine particles, largely from home heating. Poorer communities are most affected, due to greater pollution exposure and higher rates of underlying cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
“Understanding of the impacts of air pollution has improved in recent years, and WHO has dramatically reduced the acceptable levels of population exposure, but New Zealand legislation has not caught up. Indeed, the current National Environmental Standards for Air Quality are at least 20 years out of date and need to be revised in line with WHO recommendations.
“A review of policies in transport, energy, housing and health could show where reductions in air pollution exposure can be achieved most rapidly, equitably and efficiently. The Ministry for the Environment report demonstrates that there are major health co-benefits to be realised while achieving our international commitments on climate change.”
No conflicts of interest.
Dr Ian Longley and Dr Guy Coulson, Directors – The Air Quality Collective Ltd, comment:
“Given Aotearoa New Zealand’s geographical isolation in a windy zone of the south Pacific, we should have some of the best quality air in the world. Whereas NZ is a well-monitored country by international standards, the Our Air 2024 report recognizes that this monitoring is biased towards our more polluted locations and thereby forms an incomplete picture. Not only are our less urbanized areas not monitored, even some major and growing cities, like Palmerston North and Queenstown, have no regulatory-standard air quality monitoring.
“Monitoring is getting cheaper, potentially enabling more organisations to get involved, presenting a major opportunity for the future to improve our understanding of air quality and options to improve it.
“Whereas this report does not make direct international comparisons, it does clearly show that many of our more polluted locations fail to meet World Health Organisation guidelines, even 20 years after the adoption of National Air Quality Standards and a legal framework to meet them.
“The more polluted locations tend to be in South Island and inner North Island, due mainly to winter home heating emissions from solid fuel fires, and in city centres and near major roads across the country, but especially Auckland. New Zealand’s naturally clean air continues to be compromised by a relatively old (mostly second-hand) and polluting vehicle fleet, and an outdated and polluting form of home heating.
“Although air quality is improving at more sites than it isn’t, the rate of improvement is very slow and will take decades to meet WHO guidelines at the current rate in many places. During this time the health impacts reported in Our Air are accumulating every year.
“The report indicates that air quality is improving in many more places and by more measures than instances where it is steady or worsening. There are successes worth celebrating, mainly driven by transition from solid fuel (home heating) and fossil fuels (transport) to electricity. Furthermore, reductions in sulphur dioxide from reduced use of coal and international regulation of shipping are significant and likely to be permanent.
“The report does note, however, that future trajectories are quite sensitive to the rate at which transitions to electricity continue, which are subject to unpredictable market forces, but also policy settings and incentives.
“There has been a dramatic reduction in nitrogen dioxide (from traffic) levels in Auckland’s Queen Street, which is included in one of the report’s figures (5), but not mentioned in the text. This is due to the substantial reduction in traffic along this important street where large numbers of people are exposed. Relatively simple policy measures have led to small changes in traffic flow with a large health impact in part due to New Zealand’s windiness and very clean background air, meaning the gains in clean air are not nullified by polluted air blowing in from elsewhere.
“We are glad to see the report acknowledge what the science research community have known for decades – that there is no safe and healthy level of air pollution, even if National Environmental Standards are met. This means health benefits can be achieved by reducing air pollution regardless of what the current levels are.”
Conflict of interest statement: “We have acted as data providers and advisors for previous Our Air reports in our previous roles at NIWA.”
Dr Perry Davy, Senior Scientist, Environmental Chemistry, GNS Science, comments:
“Our Air 2024 offers a reasonable balance between what is known about air pollution in NZ along with identifying the knowledge gaps and challenges that we face.
“While poor urban air quality has been clearly identified as having significant effects on population health, perhaps better linkages could have been drawn between local air pollution and global effects. For example, transport emissions in urban areas were identified as having significant adverse effects on human health but are also a major contributor to our greenhouse gas emissions. Measures to reduce such emissions would have significant environmental co-benefits.
“We are endeavouring to address the gaps and challenges through our ongoing particulate matter compositional analysis work across NZ that continues to build the data and information we need to assess the impact of air pollution and identify the sources that are having most effect.
“We are working (along with collaborators) on understanding emerging air pollutants (black carbon, microplastics, heavy metals) as well as quantifying the greenhouse gases emitted by those same sources. Highlighting the need for further data collection and research on these pollutants is important for ensuring we understand the sources and effects these are having on human health and the wider environment.”
Conflict of interest statement: No conflicts of interest.
Dr Kathleen Kozyniak, Team Leader Air & Land Science, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, comments:
“Our Air 2024 is a timely update of the state of air quality across New Zealand and reflects our increased understanding of air pollution’s impact on our health. We know it continues to take a toll on our health, and we still exceed national standards and international guidelines on occasions. We also know that New Zealand’s isolation means we have significant control over our air quality.
“The report places us largely on a path to improving air quality, and continuing this trend remains our goal. Factors that help us improve air quality include people moving away from inefficient burners for home heating and having transportation options that emit less pollution.
“As highlighted in the report, a changing climate brings new risks. Hawke’s Bay is all too familiar with dust issues associated with flooding, and erosion caused by severe storms – challenges that are expected to intensify as temperatures warm.
“Actions aimed at improving air quality often also help reduce our carbon footprint, and vice versa. By focusing on initiatives that achieve both goals, we can maximise our benefits.”
Conflict of interest statement: Dr Kozyniak was a member of the report working group.