MEDIA RELEASE
26 May 2014
Doctors issue public health warning on Basin Flyover
At today’s cross-examination of public health witnesses as the Basin flyover hearings continue, the flyover’s threats to
health were exposed.
Speaking for OraTaiao: The New Zealand Climate and Health Council, Dr Alex Macmillan, Council Co-convenor and senior
lecturer in Environmental Health at the Dunedin School of Medicine, said: “The Basin flyover’s biggest threat to our
health is increasing climate-damaging emissions.”
“This flyover and the associated SH1 improvements, will increase greenhouse gas emissions at exactly the time when New
Zealand needs to be rapidly reducing transport emissions”, says Dr Macmillan.
Dr Macmillan said that although the NZ Transport Agency does not accept the effects of the project on climate change as
relevant, our changing climate is widely recognised by world health authorities and top medical journals as a leading
threat to global health this century.
“The Basin flyover is part of the Roads of National Significance that encourage much greater private vehicle dependence
at the expense of public and active transport – and the health of Wellingtonians”, says Dr Macmillan.
Dr Macmillan adds: “There are real opportunity costs with the funding of this flyover, when just 1400 metres down the
road, Wellington’s regional hospital is crippled with debt. Ironically, by designing physical activity out of New
Zealand’s transport system, NZTA is also increasing the load on hospitals.”
Research shows that physical inactivity is costing our economy around one percent of GDP including impacts on workplace
productivity and individual well-being. Globally, physical inactivity is the fourth leading cause of premature death. In
2010 alone, twenty-one premature deaths were attributed to physical inactivity inWellington and costs of $141 million.
Research also shows that for each 1% reduction in motor vehicle distance, there is a corresponding 1.4-1.8% reduction in
the incidence of road vehicle crashes.
“The NZTA has clearly not understood that transport and health spending come from the same taxpayer purse”, says Dr
Macmillan. “NZTA’s failure to adequately consider a whole of raft of health impacts, physical inactivity, noise and air
quality effects, road traffic injuries, and most importantly, the flyover’s impact on climate health, is clearly false
economy, outdated and irresponsible.”
ENDS
OraTaiao: The New Zealand Climate and Health Council
OraTaiao: The New Zealand Climate & Health Council comprises senior doctors and other health professionals concerned with climate change as a serious public health threat.
They also promote the positive health gains that can be achieved through action to address climate change. See: www.orataiao.org.nz
Notes to editors:
Background
About Climate Change and Health
Human-caused climate change is a serious and urgent threat to human health. Climate change and its environmental
manifestations (e.g. warmer temperatures, more heat waves, altered rainfall patterns, more extreme weather such as heavy
rainfall events and/or drought, tropical storms, sea-level rise) result in many risks to human health, both direct and
indirect, that are recognised by world health authorities and leading medical journals alike.
Globally, leading health threats include water and food shortages, extreme weather events, and changing patterns of
infectious disease. In NZ there will also be new health and social pressures relating to climate migrant and refugee
populations arriving in NZ and flow-on health impacts from changes in the global economy. NZ already has a relatively
high burden of several diseases that are sensitive to climatic conditions, and climate trends may already be affecting
the health of New Zealanders.
It has been estimated that climate change already causes 400,000 deaths per year globally through malnutrition, heat
illnesses, diarrhoeal infections, vector (e.g. mosquito) borne disease, meningitis and environmental disasters; and that
this number will increase substantially by 2030 if current emission patterns continue. These health impacts most
seriously affect people in developing countries, and the most disadvantaged and vulnerable within all countries.
Health Co-benefits of Climate Action
Addressing climate change is an opportunity to improve population health and reduce inequities (unfair differences in
health between different population groups). In NZ, well-designed policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can bring
about substantial health co-benefits including reductions in heart disease, cancer, obesity, Type 2 diabetes,
musculoskeletal disease, respiratory disease, and motor vehicle injuries, and improvements in mental health - with
resultant cost savings for the health care system.
These co-benefits arise because some emission reductions measures impact on important determinants of health, especially
energy intake (nutrition) and expenditure (physical movement). For example:
• Active transport (walking, cycling, public transport) improves physical activity, reduces emissions, and can reduce
air pollution and road traffic injuries. Walking and cycling are inexpensive, and public transport is used
proportionately more by people with lower incomes – with benefits to health, climate and equity.
• Healthy eating, including increased plant and less red meat and animal fat consumption, would reduce the emissions
associated with food production and likely lead to reduced rates of bowel cancer and heart disease.
• Improving indoor environments (e.g. energy efficiency measures such as home insulation) can reduce illnesses
associated with cold, damp housing (e.g. childhood asthma and chest infections which are leading causes of hospital
admissions, particularly for Maori and Pacific children).
• Increasing energy efficiency and/or moving away from fossil fuels would reduce health-damaging air pollution (e.g.
particulates) from fuel combustion, in both indoor and outdoor environments, with large health gains.
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