This winter’s cleaner air in Invercargill and Gore is a win for community health, but lasting change requires ongoing effort.
Environment Southland’s winter air quality monitoring season ended on August 31 and it said in a statement there was just one exceedance of the National Environment Standards for Air Quality recorded for Invercargill, and none for Gore.
The national standards require airsheds to stay below a PM10 concentration of 50 micrograms/m3 threshold over a 24-hour average.
Invercargill’s exceedance was 54.3 micrograms/m3, while Gore’s highest recording was 42.8.
Environment Southland science investigations and operations manager Ash Rabel said wind patterns might be a factor.
"In recent years, we have seen more easterly winds than usual, which might be driving some of the changes in PM10.
"However, we’re hopeful that the choices people are making, like burning dry wood, upgrading to cleaner heating systems, phasing out open-air fires and being more mindful of how they use their burners, are also contributing to the improved air quality for the Invercargill and Gore airsheds this year.
"Whatever the cause, fewer exceedances and cleaner air are great news for our community’s health, and we want to see that continue," he said.
This year, Environment Southland introduced a pilot programme to send out Antenno alerts in the Invercargill airshed when air quality was likely to reach high pollution levels.
"We hope this was helpful to our community and gave them a tangible understanding of how poor air quality can impact us all."
Alongside the permanent monitoring stations in Invercargill, Gore and Winton, temporary sites were placed in Te Anau, Mataura and Riverton.
The towns are part of an ongoing study in which air quality monitoring is rotated to identify areas with elevated particulate matter values during winter months.
Earlier this year, Environment Southland also commissioned Niwa to study the distribution of air pollution across Gore, the statement said.
The study indicated the council’s monitoring station was not in the ideal location to capture the town’s poorest air quality, as required by the National Environmental Monitoring Standards.
As a result, Environment Southland had installed a temporary testing site in West Gore for two years to measure the air quality through winter and better understand where the monitoring site should be located.
Home heating was one of the biggest contributors to poor air quality in Southland, and it was also an area where people could make the biggest difference, Environment Southland said.
Environment Southland operates a Good Wood-approved suppliers’ scheme.
For further information on Good Wood suppliers and what else you can do to improve air quality, go to www.breatheeasysouthland.co.nz — Allied Media
