Air pollution in Tasmania

Air Pollution in Tasmania
This is one of the priority areas of Pollution Information Tasmania, a community group dedicated to investigating and documenting pollution in the state of Tasmania, Australia.

Forestry Burns
One of the main sources of seasonal air pollution in the Tasmanian landscape is from deliberate post logging burns. Once forests are logged, they are seasonally burnt by the forest industry with either high, or smoky low, intensity burns ignited by a napalm type substance from rotary wing aircraft. Pernicious smoke from these residue burns is known to spread accross the landscape impacting upon the health of the community.

Angelika Allen from Quality Air Tasmania has been compiling diarys of these smoke pollution events and is a regularly blog writer, see "Tasmanian Times" [tasmaniantimes.com/.../Why_Air_Pollution_is_an_issue_in_Tasmania_9-9- 09.doc]. More information to come.

cleanairtas made a submission to the Australian Government's Ambient Air Quality - National Evironmental Protection Measures (NEPMs) review process in August 2010 .

Back yard Burning
Block sizes greater than 2000 square meters:

As of the 28th April 2013 nobody is administering environmental legislation in relation to back yard burning on blocks sizes greater than 2000 square meters. Council and the EPA both claim it is the other’s jurisdiction. The EPA has suggested people harmed by smoke should deal directly with the burners and ask them to desist.

Block sizes less than 2000 square meters:

Council is responsible for wood heaters and outdoor burning (incinerators, etc.) on blocks sizes less than 2000 square meters.

Pesticide Spray Drift
In response to government inaction and growing community concerns about exposure to pesticide spray drift, the National Toxics Network has published A Community Information and Action Kit: The Threat of Pesticide Spray Drift. . The Kit was launched at a public forum in Tasmania in collaboration with affected community groups. Over 2000 kits have been distributed through NGO networks and communities. It provides essential information about pesticide regulation in each state or territory of Australia, the dangers of pesticide drift, how it occurs and what you can do to take action in response to an incident. The kit includes a Pesiticide Spray Drift Report Form to help you collect important information should you be exposed to spray drift or you witness a spray drift incident.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Contaminated Waterways, Areas and Sites in Tasmania - A to Z
 * Endocrine disrupting chemicals in Tasmania
 * Food quality in Tasmania
 * Landfill pollution in Tasmania
 * Marine toxicology and pollution in Tasmania
 * One Health - Human, Animal & Environmental Health in Tasmania
 * Toxic heavy metals in Tasmania
 * Urban - Industrial pollution in Tasmania
 * Water pollution in Tasmania

External resources

 * Clean Air Tas is a very useful activist website includes information about air pollution issues and the impact on public health as a result of forestry burns and other burnoffs.
 * Clean Air Revival provides public education about the medical hazards of exposure to wood smoke and other fine particulate pollution.
 * Operation Smoke Watch is about the community recording incidents of fires and smoke around Tasmania.

External articles

 * Cleanairtas Submission #81,"Senate Committees - The impacts on health of air quality in Australia", March 2013
 * Amy Norton, "Air pollution may raise preterm birth risk", Reuters, September 24, 2009.
 * Janet Raloff, "Pollutants: Up in flames", "ScienceNews", December 2, 2009. ‘Forest fires can bake decades worth of pollutants out of soils and loft them into the air,’ Air pollution from high intensity forestry plantation burns after clear felling potentially contains much more than merely soot particles. It now has been shown that forest fires have the potential to release toxic industrial and agricultural pollutants – such as pesticides and PCBs - previously trapped on soil. After glomming onto smoke particles, these chemicals can hitch long-distance rides — sometimes across oceans — before they’re grounded again and contaminate some new region, scientists report.