The WHO 'Breathe Life' and UNICEF 'What does Air Pollution Do inside Children's Body and Brain?' videos explain that air pollution lurks all around us, preying on the young and old, slipping unnoticed past our body's defenses causing ill-health and deaths from heart attack, strokes, lung disease and cancer. 

The “Growing up in New Zealand” study found that every additional modern woodstove per hectare increased by 7% the risk children under 3 would need hospital emergency treatment.  The vast majority of stoves in the NZ study would have been modern, low-emission models, because NZ introduced stricter standards in 2005 for new wood stoves in urban areas than required for new stoves in Armidale in 2021.  Wood heaters meeting current Australian standards haven't been studied in Australia, but in NZ real-life emissions in NZ average 8 times worse than lab test data, resulting in health costs exceeding $3,000 per stove per year. In Tasmania, where many wood heaters are used in small towns similar to Armidale, estimated health costs were $4,232 per heater per year.  Health experts recommend not burning wood when non-polluting alternatives are available. 

The particles in smoke are tiny - less than 2.5 millionth of a metre.  Particles of this size, called PM2.5, behave like gases and enter our homes even when all doors and windows are closed. They also penetrate into the deepest recesses of our lungs and can cross into the bloodstream and transport toxins to every organ of the body. 

Health experts believe that there is no safe level of PM2.5. In Tasmania, researchers noted the main cause of elevated PM2.5 is biomass smoke from wood heaters during winter and bushfires and planned burns at other times of the year.  Hospital admissions for heart failure (HF, the leading cause of hospitalisation for adults aged over 65 years) started to increase in Tasmania as soon as PM2.5 exceeded 4 ug/m3, a tiny fraction of the current Australian PM2.5 standard of 25 ug/m3. The researchers also noted that there are more HF incidences and readmissions in winter in Tasmania than other seasons. 

Other studies show that many people die prematurely from PM2.5 pollution even at levels below the National PM2.5 standard. The risk is even higher when the standards are exceeded, as they were on 32 days in Armidale in 2018, according to the NSW Government Air Quality Statement.  All Armidale's exceedances were attributed to the non-exceptional event of winter wood heating. Next worse was Liverpool, Sydney, with 8 exceedances that were attributed to hazard-reduction burns and bushfires.

Launceston's successful federally-funded woodsmoke program reduced deaths in winter from respiratory disease by 28% and cardiovascular disease by 20%.  For a population of 100,000, the cost of cleaning up the air was less than $21 per resident.

Despite only 4.4% of households using wood as main heating in Sydney, residential wood heating is the largest single source of PM2.5 (the most hazardous air pollutant). One modern 'eco-friendly' wood stove is more polluting than 6 diesel trucks or 18 diesel cars. 

So would you like to champion clean air and health in Armidale?  If so, Council's Air Quality Working Group is a great place to start, especially for those who 

• Are passionate about using your skills to make a positive contribution to cleaning up our air and improving our health;

• Know something about air pollution - e.g. our PurpleAir & other measurements, or have ideas to reduce it;

• Could explore funding opportunities and work with other agencies towards obtaining funding;

• Want to work towards clean air, reduced heating costs and less global warming;

• Could gather ideas from others within the community.

If you think you have the skills and enthusiasm to serve on the Air Quality Working Group (AQWG), please email an expression of interest (EOI) to council@armidale.nsw.gov.au by 10 pm, 13 April 2021. The EOI should be in the form of a 1-2 page letter pages addressing the Selection Criteria and explaining how you can contribute to achieving the AQWG’s goals. 

Council's 'YourSay' page had all the information, but there currently appear to be some technical problems.