Coal-related pollutants continue to rise at many of the country's biggest mines, power plants and export facilities, prompting demands for stricter controls to limit health damage costing billions of dollars a year.

The latest National Pollutant Inventory, released at the end of March, revealed the extent of 93 key toxins from 4000 enterprises, including particulates that can spur premature death by worsening existing heart and lung conditions.

Victoria's Hazelwood brown coal-fired power station, which shut on Friday, emitted 61,425 tonnes of toxins in the year to June 30, 2016, one of the largest totals. The tally included almost 700 tonnes of fine particulates with a width of 2.5 micrometres – about 1/30th the width of a human hair – that can enter the blood stream.

While Hazelwood's emissions fell over the year, those at Loy Yang B power plant in the Latrobe Valley jumped 13 per cent and Yallourn's 2 per cent.