Dear David Thank you for your enquiry regarding Air Quality Monitoring relating to smoke from the Hazelwood Mine Fire. I have referred your enquiry to our Monitoring & Assessment Team and their response is as follows: The fine particles in smoke behave almost exactly the same in the atmosphere as a gas. That is they are dispersed by the wind from the source basically until they are rained out, undergo chemical reactions or are deposited on surfaces. This can take many days and during this time the exact makeup does not change. What is monitored at the EPA sites is virtually identical to what goes off the fire. Or put another way, if we lined up a series of monitors at different distances from the fire (say 10m, 100m, 1000m, 10km) they would measure very different concentrations of smoke, but identical compositions. The EPA cannot comment further on ‘cancer causing’ effects as this enquiry is really for the Department of Health to answer. With regard to your question as to whether the EPA or the mine industry have done any studies directly on the coal in the Latrobe Valley by burning it in a lab and testing the smoke this emits. Such studies have been conducted in various laboratories around the world. The EPA does not undertake such health-effects studies (and the mine industry probably does not either). To do such a study properly would take more expertise and resources than are available within the EPA, and be extra-ordinarily complex. One reason is that every kind of coal has a different composition, comprising hundreds of different chemical compounds that can behave in complicated ways. However, international agencies such as the World Health Organisation do examine these studies carefully and report on them. The EPA takes account of WHO recommendations, and the levels that are reported on are almost without exception based on these international recommendations. The EPA has, and will, uptake its reporting criteria as new recommendations are made and adopted by environmental agencies in Australia such as the federal agency Environment Australia which has the primary responsibility for setting new standards. With reference to the London Smog incident of 1952, The London smog event was truly massive and is well recognised as the modern era trigger for identifying the health effects of airborne smoke. A great deal more is now known about these types of effects, such that a repeat is unlikely. A comparison between Morwell 2014 and London 1952 is not especially useful on any level beyond the generic “…here were two communities that suffered from widespread effects of smoke from coal burning…”. Differences include (a) the numbers of people, (b) the concentrations in the air, (c) the times and (d) the causes. Both events had consequences – both terrible in their own ways, but direct comparison is not supported by the data. If we can be of any further assistance please contact us. Regards Christine Customer Service Team EPA Victoria [email protected]
Posted on: Fri, 02 May 2014 13:26:30 +0000
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