Health damage from current air pollution levels

Abstract

Professor Barnett warned that air pollution 'standards' confuse many people because they do not represent 'safe' levels of pollution. Allowing pollution to increase to current 'standards' would substantially increase ill-health. A good example is the current standard of 500 ng/m³ for airborne lead, which might be considered inadequate. After leaded petrol was banned in 2002, pollution in most urban areas has been well below this value, e.g. the maximum 24-hr lead concentration in 2012 in the mining town Muswellbrook, NSW, was 20.1 ng/m³, with 42% coming from burning painted timber in domestic wood-heaters. As well as calculating health damages from allowing increased pollution, an important public health issue is to understand the health damage from current levels of air pollution, so that the costs and benefits of pollution-reduction strategies can be considered.