26 Feb, 2013 04:00 AM
NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell's decision to legislate a two-kilometre buffer zone between urban and peri-urban areas and mining operations in NSW is a start, public health officials say, but only a start. "(Mr O'Farrell) is obviously getting very nervous about CSG and that his own constituency is very concerned about it," said Michael Moore of the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA). "The fact is, the urban constituency is not enough." The PHAA, and four other national health bodies, are collaborating to sound warnings on the "adverse health impacts and environmental damages associated with current minerals energy policy, particularly those relating to coal and coal seam gas". After a recent Health and Energy Roundtable in Canberra, the organisations and a broad group of other health bodies drafted a joint statement arguing that the risks to human health from fossil fuel extraction are not being well accounted for. Mining policy currently ignores the fact that the health of the environment and society contribute to the health of the population overall, the statement said. "The local health impacts from coal mining, transportation and combustion are also a significant concern, and communities living in proximity to these activities are experiencing adverse social impacts, such as loss of amenity, displacement, and loss of social capital as well as facing increased risks of respiratory disease, heart disease, and lung cancer." The rapid expansion of the fossil fuel industries in Australia demands these issues "be urgently addressed", the statement said. The document was drafted by the PHAA, Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA), National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA), Climate Change Health Research Network (NCCARF-ARN), Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA). Other groups, including Cancer Council Australia, Heart Foundation, Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY), National Toxics Network (NTN), Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA), and New South Wales Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA), have agreed to work along the same lines.
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