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Sources of Air Pollution in Sidney

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Motor vehicle emissions remain the highest source of air pollution in Australian major cities with Sydney holding the record for the worst air quality in Australia. Although Sydney has comparatively better levels of air quality compared to other major cities in the world, air pollution is still a major environmental and health issue. The NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change have put the cost of this issue to human health at more than $4.7 billion each year in the greater metropolitan area. Health experts have also estimated that air pollution cause up to 1400 deaths per year in Sydney alone, and up to 2000 hospital admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses. In a 2004 statement by the CSIRO, the mortality rate due to air pollution in Australia (approximately 2,400 deaths each year at the time) was higher than the road toll (approximately 1,700 deaths each year at the time), and these estimates have only risen in recent years as medical science gains a better understanding of the link between air pollution, health problems, and the significant cost to our economy. The cause of this pollution can be put down to Sydney’s ever-growing vehicle numbers. According to the NSW Government’s 2009 State of The Environment Report, vehicle ownership growth now outstrips the population growth as each household is now estimated to own 1.49 cars and take 16.3 million car trips totalling 132 million kilometres daily. Hence a combination of both economic incentives and

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