‘Just like smoking’: Pollution may kill 10 times as many people as crashes

Traffic pollution may be killing far more people than previously thought and a Melbourne GP says it’s “just like smoking”.

It’s now believed that traffic pollution may be responsible fore more than 11,000 deaths in Australia every year — 10 times the number killed on our roads.

Melbourne GP and spokesperson for Doctors for the Environment Australia, Associate Professor Vicki Kotsirilos, says “the health concerns are far greater than we previously knew”.

Press PLAY below to hear the alarming impacts traffic pollution has on health

“Vehicle emissions contribute to childhood asthma, recurrent lung infections,” she told Ross and Russel.

“Adults are at higher risk of premature death, stroke, diabetes, heart and lung disease from exposure to the vehicle emissions.”

Previous estimates suggested vehicle emissions caused no more than 2000 deaths per year, but a new expert position statement released by Melbourne Climate Futures centre at the University of Melbourne says the impact of nitrogen dioxide from vehicle emissions were not considered in that figure.