“It’s a silent epidemic and hundreds are dying every year in the Sydney region alone,” he said. “Coal mines and coal-fired power stations are given free passes to pollute, and people are bearing the cost.

“If governments needed another reason to leave coal, gas and oil in the ground, and wood in forests, here’s 5 billion reasons.”

‘Coal mines and coal-fired power stations are given free passes to pollute, and people are bearing the cost.’

Brad Smith, from the Nature Conservation Council

Inner west resident Ebony Wightman has had severe asthma since birth but said since living beside Parramatta Road and the smoke stacks near WestConnex, it’s the worst it’s ever been. Even smoke from neighbouring fireplaces is enough to affect her.

There have been times when Wightman can hardly walk. She’s been in and out of hospital and receives fortnightly injections just to make her asthma manageable.

“It has been really tough,” she said. “I’ve almost died a few times. Every time I go into the hospital, I am in the resuscitation bay.”

Wightman and her partner have considered moving to regional Australia where the air quality would be better, but they have concerns there would be limited medical support for Wightman’s asthma.

“I wish I could have the best of both worlds [medical access and clean air],” she said. “I would be dead if I didn’t have RPA down the road.

“If the government and people in my community took air health more seriously, my life and other people’s lives could be different and we could have a better quality of life. When I have to stay at home with an air purifier, it is not much of a life.”

Asthma Australia chief executive officer Michele Goldman said the number of air pollution deaths across Australia is thousands of people per year. She said it was only during major events, such as the 2019-20 bushfires, that people became acutely aware of air pollution.

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“It is not just at high concentrations of different pollutants that our health is impacted. Even low levels of pollution if we are exposed on a cumulative basis impacts on our health, and the community deserves to make informed choices,” Goldman said.

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