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Air toxics

Air toxics include benzene, dioxins, lead and other metals. Major sources of these toxics include motor vehicle exhaust and some commercial and industrial processes. Knowledge of the health effects of air toxics is far from complete, but studies in Europe and North America are showing that very small amounts of air toxics may present a risk to human health and the environment.

Results of EPA monitoring to date indicate that levels of air toxics in the Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong are generally low in comparison to comparable cities in Europe and North America.

For information about air toxics see:

• Ambient Air Quality Research Project (1996-2001) - With international concern turning to pollutants called air toxics, which may be impacting human health and the environment through long term low level exposure, the NSW Government provided $1.4 million to the EPA to carry out an investigation into concentrations of these pollutants in the air in NSW. A summary report and four internal working papers will be published from this research project.
  • Summary report: Dioxins, Organics, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Heavy Metals (html and pdf versions)
  • Internal Working Paper No 1: Ambient Concentrations of Dioxins in NSW - explains why ambient dioxin levels at sites in NSW are well below overseas standards, dioxinsbody.pdf (445 kb, requires Acrobat Reader, executive summary, preliminary material, report) and dioxinsapps.pdf (119 kb, requires Acrobat Reader, appendices)
  • Internal Working Paper No. 2: Ambient Concentrations of Toxic Organic Compounds in NSW - presents the measurement results and a statistical analysis of the concentrations of 41 organic air toxic compounds in ambient air at five representative sites over several years, organics04120.pdf (569 kb, requires Acrobat Reader)
  • Internal Working Paper No 3: Ambient Concentrations of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Species in NSW, pah.pdf (359 kb, requires Acrobat Reader)
  • Internal Working Paper No 4: Ambient Concentrations of Heavy Metals in NSW - explains why heavy metal levels at sites in NSW are well below international standards, heavymetals.pdf (379 kb, requires Acrobat Reader) 
• Action for Air: The NSW Government's 25 year air quality management plan targets smog and particle pollution and covers all the major sources of air pollution in the Greater Metropolitan Region of Sydney, the Lower Hunter and the Illawarra. It covers motor vehicles and related transport and planning issues, major industrial sources, smaller commercial and industrial sources and domestic sources.
• Environmental Information for Small Business: Simple, practical information that will help people at work to assess their environmental performance and play their part in looking after the environment - see Service stations and Photographic film & paper processors.
• State of the Environment: NSW State of the Environment 2006 is the most comprehensive and accessible report available on the NSW environment: