University of Melbourne researchers have found that health impacts from heavy vehicle emissions are costing the community more than A$6.2 billion per year.
The discussion paper, titled The Unpriced Burden: Heavy vehicle emissions and the $6.2 billion health cost and co-authored by Dr Clare Walter and Professor Mark Stevenson, assesses the annual taxpayer cost of premature deaths, cardio-respiratory hospital admissions and lung cancer treatment resulting from inhalation of nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions produced by trucks on our roads.
The paper has been released in anticipation of the Federal Government's Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) reform later this year.
While the proposed policy options ahead of this revision consider the regulatory framework, safety, productivity, and administrative impacts of heavy vehicles, they do not adequately account for the impacts on public health and the associated economic ramifications.
The health impacts of NO2 inhalation from trucks pose a serious risk to the Australian public and contribute to an already overburdened health system, the paper found.
An analysis of major vehicle markets (including Australia) found heavy vehicles are responsible for a quarter of on-road nitrogen oxide emissions.
Even brief exposures, measured in minutes, can cause inflammation of the respiratory system and may precipitate asthma attacks in susceptible individuals, the authors said.
Exposure during activities such as walking, running, or cycling near major roads can reduce oxygen supply to the heart and activate pathways involved in blood clotting, increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Exposure to NO2 is also significantly associated with premature mortality and increased emergency department presentations and hospital admissions for asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia, ischaemic heart disease, myocardial infarction, stroke, cardiac arrhythmiasand hypertension.
'We call on the review panel for the Heavy Vehicle National Law to consider health impacts from truck emissions outlined in our discussion paper. We set out achievable recommendations that will see an enormous return on investment thereby delivering preferred health outcomes,' said Professor Stevenson.
Children are particularly impacted by heavy vehicle emissions, the paper found, both due to their susceptibility to NOx inhalation and the frequency of schools and childcare centres on major roads.
In a recent case study of a proposed childcare centre in Melbourne's west, researchers found the concentration of air pollution particles measured at the site exceeded both World Health Organization and Australian guideline levels, resulting in a 28 per cent increase in the risk of childhood asthma incidence – equivalent to being exposed to 8.4 cigarettes per day.
Dr Walter and Professor Stevenson recommend establishing low-emission corridors throughout urban areas, accelerating the transition to low- and zero-emission heavy vehicles including our bus fleets, shifting freight to cleaner modes, and exploring options to route freight away from residential areas, schools, and childcare centres.
