The south-west is wheezy, while the east breathes easy

By Bonnie Malkin Urban Affairs Reporter
May 30, 2005

Residents of south-western Sydney are at higher risk from respiratory diseases caused by bad air quality than those in other parts of the metropolitan region, according to environmental and health experts.

The Total Environment Centre's urban campaigner, Leigh Martin, said suburbs such as Campbelltown, Camden and Liverpool experienced more days on which air quality guidelines were exceeded than suburbs in the city's east.

"It's the nature of the air shed that pollutants tend to be concentrated in that part of Sydney," Mr Martin said.

"It's the result of prevailing air currents and the barrier of the Blue Mountains. In coastal areas we have sea breezes that tend to dissipate pollutants."

Mr Martin said poor air quality often led to poor health.

"There are more admissions to hospital for respiratory ailments and more fatalities from heart attacks and respiratory illnesses on days when air quality guidelines are exceeded," he said.

Air quality guidelines were exceeded in Sydney's south-western suburbs on nine days last year, NSW Department of Environment and Conservation figures show. But central and eastern suburbs had seven days. In 2000, the south-west had 13 days of high air pollution, the central and east nine.

Lena Bersikh, of Edensor Park, suffers from asthma, and so do her two children, Adam, 4, and Meredith, 3. Both children were diagnosed with asthma when they were 2 and are also allergic to carpet and dust mites.

"The asthma increases in the winter and gets worse when there's more pollution; right before it rains we all get it really badly," Mrs Bersikh, 32, said.

"The pollution isn't always visible, but you can feel it in the air and just before it rains it's like it mixes up and makes your breathing harder."

Mrs Bersikh said her asthma improved slightly when she was closer to the coast. Her children both take preventative medication for asthma but sometimes nothing can stop the wheezing.

"A change of temperature often triggers it, like when it suddenly gets cold or when they wake up out of a warm bed and go into a cooler environment," she said.

The Asthma Foundation of NSW's chief executive, Fiona Krautil, said she was concerned about the projected increase in air pollution in south-western Sydney and the potential it had to affect the health of people with asthma.

"Air pollution is convincingly associated with many signs of asthma aggravation, these include pulmonary function decrements … increased medication use and symptom reporting, inflammatory changes, interactions between air pollution and allergen challenges, and immune system changes."

Ms Krautil said a 2002 study by the University of Southern California for the California Environmental Protection Agency's Air Resources Board suggested air pollution caused asthma and other diseases in children.

The study followed 3500 children in 12 communities over five years to determine potential health damage caused by growing up in polluted air. Six communities had higher-than-average ozone concentrations, whilst the other six were lower than average.

Children in higher ozone communities who played up to three team sports developed asthma at a rate three times higher than children in the lower ozone communities, the study found.


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