Air pollution causes no health hazard—study

Press, 20 May 1987, Page 9

Air pollution causes no health hazard—study

The Health Department maintains there is no air pollution health hazard in Christchurch. The department released yesterday its critical appraisal of the Canterbury United Council commissioned study on air pollution in Christchurch. That study was labelled as “alarmist” and nonsense by the department and it moved to. dissociate itself from it when the study was released on April 1. The Medical Officer of Health in Christchurch, Dr Bill Malpress, and Dr Terry Brady, a departmental scientist specialising in pollution and community health, explained to a news media conference yesterday afternoon the department’s reasons for branding the C.U.C. study “meaningless nonsense.” “The study’s maths is all wrong," said Dr Brady. “There are many unjustified mathematical calculations that make the

study invalid. Even if the authors’ (Dr Graeme Scott and Ms Lee Newman) calculations were correct it would still be wrong.” In explaining the department’s point of view, the two officers claimed the Scott-Newman study had alarmed people because it declared the pollution problem in Christchurch was definitely hazardous to health and could cause death. The study reported that at least 42 deaths occurred from the effects of air pollution in Christchurch in 1984. Dr Brady said their calculations were wrong and working out the total from the mathematical method used by Scott-Newman the total deaths related to air pollution were 32. Nevertheless, he claimed the method used was also misleading. “The actual figure is that 32 deaths, plus or minus 252 deaths, could have occurred in 1984. “So in that context you

could argue that air pollution was good for you,” he said. The department’s appraisal concludes that there could have been deaths during the 1950 s in susceptible persons which could have been a result of air pollution, “notably fine particles and sulphur dioxide,” but the situation changed drastically since then and “what is quite clear is that current levels of air pollution (smoke and sulphur dioxide) in the 1980 s are well below the levels at which morbidity effects would be discernable and are certainly not implicated in premature mortality.” It claims the references used by the study were not relevant to Christchurch as the level of air pollution in the city is minimal. Dr Brady urged the C.U.C.’s air pollution committee to read and evaluate the department’s appraisal before considering any action on the Scott-

Newman report However, Dr Chris Kissling, the C.U.C.’s planning director, said after the study’s release that the department’s comments had not convinced him about the Scott-Newman report’s credibility or lack of it “The concern raised by the Scott-Newman report could be real and this appraisal has not shown it not to be real,” Dr Kissling said. Dr Brady was asked if the pollution recorded in Christchurch last weekend was dangerous. He said that on a one-day basis it was minor and that the department would not consider, the level, 108, to be a health risk. Dr Malpress contended that pollution created from one person’s smoking a cigarette in a room was more hazardous to health than 12 days of Christchurch’s average pollution levels.