1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:04,360
Speaker 1: Okay, pop quiz, what of these do you think causes

2
00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,320
Speaker 1: the highest number of premature deaths in New Zealand? Okay,

3
00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:10,039
Speaker 1: bit of a macarb pop quiz? But what of these

4
00:00:10,039 --> 00:00:12,280
Speaker 1: do you think causes the highest number of premature deaths?

5
00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:21,680
Speaker 1: Bowel cancer, diabetes, road crashes, melanoma, air pollution. This is

6
00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:24,880
Speaker 1: going to seem unbelievable to many Keiwis, but according to

7
00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:30,000
Speaker 1: the Ministry of the Environment Statistics New Zealand, here in

8
00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:33,240
Speaker 1: good old cleaning green one hundred percent pure New Zealand,

9
00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:37,040
Speaker 1: air pollution kills more people than all of those other

10
00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:42,480
Speaker 1: causes combined. Just think about that, diabetes, bowel cancer, road crashes, melanoma.

11
00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:45,200
Speaker 1: Put them in a blender, add them all together, all

12
00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:48,840
Speaker 1: of those deaths, and air pollution still comes out top

13
00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:52,960
Speaker 1: of the macarb pops. That's crazy, isn't it so? According

14
00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:56,200
Speaker 1: to the study release today, even though air pollution standards

15
00:00:56,200 --> 00:01:00,000
Speaker 1: have improved, in twenty nineteen, air pollution was associated with

16
00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:02,840
Speaker 1: three two hundred deaths in New Zealand. That's more than

17
00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:04,679
Speaker 1: the number of people who died on nine to eleven.

18
00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:08,319
Speaker 1: In a country our size, with our wealth and with

19
00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:12,240
Speaker 1: our regulatory framework, you would have to say more than

20
00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:16,600
Speaker 1: three thousand deaths every year attributable to air pollution is

21
00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:20,720
Speaker 1: a disgraceful figure. It is. It's disgraceful. According to the

22
00:01:20,959 --> 00:01:24,360
Speaker 1: triennial study, about one in ten deaths in twenty nineteen

23
00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:27,560
Speaker 1: was attributable to air pollution. The social costs are in

24
00:01:27,640 --> 00:01:30,760
Speaker 1: the billions of dollars, and that doesn't include the increasingly

25
00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:35,640
Speaker 1: well documented impact on brain function and intelligence that comes

26
00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:39,520
Speaker 1: from prolonged exposure to air pollution. Now, like all health

27
00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:43,520
Speaker 1: stats are, of course, poor people in poor communities are

28
00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:48,000
Speaker 1: the most negatively affected. The biggest cause is no surprise though,

29
00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:51,960
Speaker 1: it's traffic pollution. But as the science improves, the impact

30
00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:56,720
Speaker 1: of traffic pollution of traffic on air pollution only gets worse.

31
00:01:56,840 --> 00:02:00,760
Speaker 1: So basically, traffic causes us way more harm than we

32
00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:05,120
Speaker 1: previously understood. The report suggests that get us about seventy

33
00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:08,320
Speaker 1: percent of the air pollution debts and about seventy percent

34
00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:12,960
Speaker 1: of more than thirteen thousand annual hospitalizations from air pollution

35
00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:18,359
Speaker 1: are caused from traffic pollution seventy percent. And of course,

36
00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:20,720
Speaker 1: when you take the cars off the road long and behold,

37
00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:24,920
Speaker 1: the air quality improves. So if you ever needed a

38
00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:30,360
Speaker 1: greater reason, for better investment in public transport services, for

39
00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:34,440
Speaker 1: massively speeding up the EV rollout, and for congestion charging

40
00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:38,239
Speaker 1: in our cities. I reckon three two hundred deaths a year?

41
00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:43,680
Speaker 1: Is it tame? For more? From Heather Duplessy Allen Drive.

42
00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:47,239
Speaker 1: Listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,

43
00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:49,560
Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio