It’s time to press the panic button on the air we breathe in
the Upper Hunter and there’s no time to waste.
At the Upper Hunter Health Forum (Tuesday 12th March ) presented by Dr
Ben Ewald, Dr John Van Der Kallen and Dr Bob Vickers from Doctors of the Environment (DEA), we heard how air pollution is a major environmental risk to
health and how it is killing us.
We also heard that there is strong evidence that we
can reduce illness and death from stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and
respiratory diseases by significantly reducing air pollution levels but … and
it’s a big ‘but’ … we need political will and leadership from those who
represent us.
With the NSW election only 3 days away, we have an
opportunity to make a difference in our health outcomes by voting for
politicians who take climate change seriously and who are prepared to
transition quickly to renewable energy.
The DEA doctors told us that stopping
emissions from coal-fired power stations would immediately improve our health
with fewer deaths, fewer incidences of cardiovascular disease, fewer low birth
weight babies, fewer premature babies and fewer new cases of diabetes.
In a nutshell, choosing a politician prepared to deal with
climate change would provide us with an opportunity to improve our health. We
need to vote for this sort of a politician.
In the Upper Hunter, air pollution routinely breaches
Australian national standards and nothing is done about it. Yes, there are
monitoring stations and we monitor that we are steadily being poisoned but
nothing is actually done to stop the breaches re-occurring. It is air pollution
‘Groundhog Day’ over and over again.
So, what to do!
Hit that panic button and vote for the
candidate who takes our Upper Hunter predicament seriously and who recognises
that we have a right to breathe clean air …
… and PS don’t forget to number all the boxes to get the
most out of your vote!!!
(this post has been cross-posted at Scone Blogger)
