A damming air quality report has revealed heavy industry is killing at least 13 people every year in Mount Maunganui.
The scathing report, requested by Toi Te Ora Public Health, comes as the community wants answers for the health issues caused by industrial production.
Pollutants assessed included particulate matter, nitrogen, sulphur dioxides, benzene, and odours emitted from the industrial zone.
The report found that roughly 13 out of 17,000 living in Mount Maunganui die prematurely every year due to the air they breathe.
"If you look at the level of air pollution in the Mount Maunganui area and the ambient background, it's actually amongst the worst air pollution in the country," Toi Te Ora Public Health's Dr Jim Miller said.
The community wants answers, especially Whareroa Marae, which has long been calling for a managed retreat of the city's industrial estate. (Source: 1News)
The report examined how the industrial Mount Maunganui airshed affected air quality in the neighbouring beachfront suburbs compared to the less-affected Otūmoetai area.
Each year there were five extra deaths and 10 extra hospitalisations.
"What we've really found is there's an increase in deaths and deaths or mortality, premature deaths also hospitalisations and restricted activity days when you compare the two areas," Miller said.
Whareroa Marae has been calling for a review of air quality for years.
"We've had to bury three of our Whānau here at Whareroa, and they've all been directly related back to respiratory problems," Joel Ngātuere from the marae said.
He said local and central governments could no longer play ignorance when it comes to the town's air quality thanks to the report.
"This is, I guess, what it is now, as we've got clear evidence in this research that where councils, government and industry can no longer plead ignorance," Ngātuere said.
"Evidence that people are getting poisoned, and it takes more than just us to drive the change collectively between Whareroa and the wider Mount Maunganui community."
The report also found "offensive" and "objectionable odours" are reducing the quality of life and affecting the well-being of residents.
"I've got a four-year-old and a six-year-old, and obviously, to be putting them in the environment. It's now proven that the air is not good for them. It's pretty scary," local Catie Dawson told 1News.
"It's hard to describe, it just smells really bad, and you can tell that you're not breathing fresh air."
The regional council gets more than 500 complaints about the smell every year.
"We haven't granted any consents to discharge to air over the last few years in the Mount area just because we know that there's an issue there," general manager of regulatory services Reuben Fraser said.
He welcomes the report but said potential solutions are complex.
"The message is we recognise the impacts that the air quality has on people's lives and living with odour every day is a very unpleasant thing to do. Stick with us, we know that it's an issue and we are committed to working towards solutions.
"If you go down the track of, for example, introducing tougher rules, there are going to be impacts on those businesses, so that's something that we need to take time to get right."
Ngātuere wants to start seeing change.
"If you're not going to make change for the safety and well-being of tamariki, whānau and average Kiwis, then just tell us that the income and money and support for large corporate industries is more important than the health of Kiwis."
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