Putting off the deadline for smog standards will mean 635 avoidable deaths, 505 unnecessary hospital admissions and more than 1 million extra sick days, says Labour's environment spokesman Charles Chauvel says.
Environment Minister Nick Smith today announced the Government's new plan for clean air, which will give New Zealand's smoggiest areas longer to meet air quality standards.
Auckland, Napier, Blenheim and Hamilton now have until 2016 to reach the standard, and more polluted centres, such as Christchurch, Timaru, Rotorua, Hastings, Ashburton and Nelson will have a 2020 deadline.
But Mr Chauvel said the decision would be fatal for hundreds of New Zealanders who would have been saved from dying from respiratory failure by the proper implementation of the new standards.
It would also strain the public health system through many more avoidable hospital emissions, and cost the economy over 1 million extra sick days, he said.
"It also means a big taxpayer subsidy to those businesses -- we will all pay for the avoidable public hospital treatments for respiratory illnesses that this decision will cause."
Dr Smith, announcing the new dates today, said it was unrealistic to have the same standard apply to 15 different airsheds.
A "draconian" crackdown on non-compliers would affect over 180 industry consents and put about 17,000 people out of work, he said.
The new policy reduced the health benefits slightly from $1.911 billion to $1.746b, but also significantly reduces the economic costs from $867 million to $196m, he said
"We need to replace our old and open domestic fires, invest in cleaner technology in our factories, and continue to shift to modern low-polluting vehicles. These changes need to be paced to maximise the health benefits while minimising the economic costs."
Dr Smith said the best estimate of annual premature deaths from air pollution was 1640 per year or about four times the road toll.
