Is Australia's main source of pollution information about to be weakened? Researchers in the UK recently linked exposure to nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate pollution with an enlargement in the chambers of the heart of the sort seen in the early stages of heart failure. This is just the latest in a long line of studies that shows a correlation between air pollution and health problems. Anecdotal evidence is also strong. People who live in Gladstone and Rockhampton in Queensland, in the Hunter Valley and on the central coast in NSW and in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria know what it's like for air pollution to leave them wheezing, short of breath, headachey and nauseous. There’s quite a lot of hard data about where this pollution comes from and what toxic substances it contains. We know fine particle pollution from the Mt Piper power station near Lithgow in NSW increased by almost 500% between 2016 and 2017. We know fine particle pollution from the Vales Point power station on the NSW Central Coast increased by 179% in the same period. (Fine particle pollution is responsible for more than 3000 premature deaths in Australia each year.) We know the Bayswater power station released 73.5 kilograms of mercury into the air in 2017. How do we know this basic information about pollution in Australia? The government-run National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) is the № 1 source of information for Australians who want to find out what pollution they are breathing. The NPI is the most comprehensive pollution database in Australia, reporting on all major polluters and 93 different substances. It contains info about pollution from power stations, vehicles, factories, agriculture, mining and more. Anyone can go to the NPI website and access the database. Citizens can take action to protect themselves from toxic pollution. Around the world, polluters have taken measures to control toxic air and water pollution because they have been held to account by informed and active communities. We have a right to know. But the NPI is being reviewed. And industry wants to weaken it.



Every year when the annual NPI reports are released we at Environmental Justice Australia use it to analyse whether pollution from coal mines and power stations has gone up or down and whether industry’s claims about pollution are true or false.



We can see which facilities are the biggest polluters, how close they are to communities and which toxic substances they are releasing into the air we all breathe. Through the NPI we learned that particle pollution from Australian coal mines trebled in 10 years.



Without the NPI, we would know much, much less about toxic pollution.



Will you join us in telling all governments that the NPI is a critical part of the community’s right to know and that it should be strengthened, not weakened?



Click below to make your submission – it will take about one minute of your time. We’ve put in suggested text, but you can edit and add your own points.

