Yarraville and Brooklyn have been named in a new report as two of a dozen air pollution ‘hot spots’ across Australia.
Environmental Justice Australia’s report Clearing the air: Why Australia urgently needs effective national air pollution laws, argues industry regulation is failing and stricter laws are needed to protect people from harmful levels of air pollution.
Released last Thursday, the report found air pollution in Australia is “inadequately regulated, monitored and enforced” and the cause of more than 3000 premature deaths in Australia each year.
Advocacy and research director Nicola Rivers said the government must act to better protect the health of communities in Yarraville and Brooklyn.
She said the federal and state governments had been delaying action on health problems caused by thousands of diesel trucks travelling through Yarraville every day.
“At a national level you can regulate diesel, they are far behind what the EU is doing,” she said.
“For an area like Yarraville you can also put local restrictions in place and require the vehicles don’t go into a residential area.”
Maribyrnong Truck Action Group president Samantha McArthur welcomed the report as a step towards national action.
“If we had a fire or a toxic oil spill causing deaths then there would be government action, but because it’s not something you can see in the same way there is just a lack of will to act.”
