Using data available through AURIN, as well as Westgate and EPA (Environment Protection Authority Victoria) monitor data, researchers from the University of Queensland and the University of Melbourne have raised concerns about the impact of emissions from truck traffic on childhood asthma rates in Melbourne’s Inner West.
Clare Walter, Peter D Sly, Brian W Head, Diane Keogh and Nina Lansbury’s study, ‘Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Childhood Asthma – Are the Risks Appropriately Mitigated in Australia?’, examines three sources of air quality monitoring data in Victoria, analysing these alongside AURIN data which provided insight into distances of childcare centres and schools from major truck routes.
Problem
Asthma is the most common chronic disease among children, with air pollution a major causal factor – for example, up to one-third of European childhood asthma cases are attributable to traffic-related air pollution.
At the federal level in Australia, the Ambient Air Quality National Environmental Protection Measures regulate air pollution. A key goal of these measures is that people should receive equivalent protection from air pollution wherever they live, with particular attention to be placed on protecting vulnerable groups, including children.
However, state and local policies and approvals do not always align with these federal policy goals. Processes such as Health Impact Assessments, used as part of planning and decision-making, are also variable and impacted by data collection methodologies.
One such assessment in the Yarraville area of Melbourne, conducted with relation to the Westgate Road Tunnel Project, concluded that air quality in the area did not present any health concern – however, it included no quantitative assessment of childhood asthma risk, and did not consider local air quality data. As such, it did not provide a full picture of the potential impacts of urban development.
Approach
The researchers focused on Yarraville, an inner western Melbourne suburb, which provides a contemporary example of how policy questions of health and traffic intersect. Hospital data shows that the local government area has Victoria’s highest respiratory-related admissions for children aged between 3 and 19 years, with heavy freight-related traffic tied to existing community concerns about childhood asthma.
Using data from air quality monitoring stations, as well as from the EPA, the study identified three-year averages of fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide – two key pollutants commonly used to assess levels of traffic-related air pollution in urban areas. Risk estimates were then assigned using established analyses of the correlation between traffic pollution and childhood asthma.
Through AURIN, the researchers also produced a map of Melbourne’s inner west displaying the locations of schools and childcare centres, as well as high-density truck routes (as below, click for a larger version).
The monitor data captured by the study showed fine air pollution concentrations exceeding World Health Organisation standards, with the majority also showing data exceeding Australian standards. At the same time, the map showed that 41% of childcare centres, as well as 36% of schools, were 150 metres or closer to a high-volume traffic route.
The research therefore found high pollutant levels – which other studies have strongly connected to traffic volumes, as well as to risk of childhood asthma – in close proximity to childcare centres and schools, despite the state government’s Westgate tunnel project health impact assessment finding that the possibility of additional traffic presented no health concern.
“A picture is worth a thousand words. AURIN effectively provided not only the visualisation of the underlying issues but also served as a valuable conduit to the quantitative data we used,” says Clare Walter.
Further detail on these methods and results are available through the researchers’ open-access paper.
Impact
This study ultimately highlights ways in which current policy and planning practices are failing to achieve goals of harm minimisation and equitable protection. In particular, it demonstrates that there are significant gaps in health impact assessments and other processes.
As a result, decisions on approvals for major road projects, as well as on the proximity of childcare centres and schools in relation to traffic routes, are not sufficiently taking into account the relevant health risks. In the case of Yarraville, childhood asthma was not quantitatively assessed in the official health impact assessment, despite this being a key concern of the local community.
This study therefore underscores failures in road infrastructure and urban planning practices, which are not delivering on goals such as the federal National Environmental Protection Measures.
Critically, it points to an urgent need for greater transparency in health impact assessment methods and project approval processes, and for these to be brought into alignment with the most current evidence – and with the health and wellbeing of affected communities.
