The Governments' latest health and safety announcements
To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following:
See terms of use.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Wood smoke, traffic fumes polluting Christchurch's air
Professor Simon Hales (left) says much of Christchurch's air pollution problem, particularly in winter, can be traced back to home heating. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon Recently the air quality in parts of Canterbury has been rated 'unhealthy' using the air quality index (AQI), which measures high levels of particulate matter in the air. But what does poor air quality actually mean for our health? University of Otago environmental epidemiologist Professor Simon Hales told RNZ's Nights the source of the pollution, particularly in winter, is generally home heating. "The reason why it's a problem in winter is because in Christchurch there is a kind of, the city is somewhat bowl-shaped with the Port Hills on one side, and there tends to be sort of a very calm night with the temperature inversion, which is a bit like having a lid on the city. So all the smoke that comes out of people's chimneys is trapped, and that's what leads to the very high level." Hales said Christchurch's air quality had improved since he lived there 30 years ago, but still needed to improve further. "The World Health Organization (WHO) has a guideline level for the daily level of PM2.5 fine particle pollution, and that's 15 micrograms per cubic metre," he said. "About 15 percent of the days over the past five years have been over that guideline level. And in the last three months, about 43 days." That means, in the last three months, Christchurch's air has had over the WHO-recommended daily level of particle matter in its air about 47 percent of the time. "There is also an annual guideline which is five micrograms per cubic meter. And in fact the annual average PM 2.5 in Christchurch has been about nine micrograms per cubic meter, so nearly double the WHO guidelines," Hales said. While polluted air was unlikely to noticeably affect young and fit people, those with chronic diseases, particularly heart and lung related, might notice their symptoms getting worse temporarily. However, the short-term effects were only part of health impact, he said. "Over weeks and months of exposure, it's making people who are currently healthy gradually less healthy. So it's actually inducing disease or worsening disease in people who otherwise would would have been healthy. And this relates particularly to heart disease and lung disease, but there's an increasing number of different diseases that we're realising are related to air pollution exposure." And it's not just woodsmoke leading to the poor air quality. Nitrogen dioxide, which comes mainly from road traffic, is also a big issue, Hales said. "In fact, we recently did a study which suggested that the N-O-2 was actually more of a problem in terms of its overall health impact, causing over 2000 premature deaths per year." The same study, published in 2021, revealed about 1000 deaths relating to particles mainly from home heating. The main solution was to switch to cleaner fuels, Hales said. That should not be a problem for a wealthy country like New Zealand, which had abundant hydropower resources, he said. A similar shift was needed in regards to transport. "We need to change the modes by which we get about mostly. "We still use personal cars, mostly fossil fuel-powered cars, and we need to switch both to clean vehicles, EVs for example, but also we need to switch the mode so that people are not relying so much on personal cars, but also using public transport and active transport, so walking and cycling." New Zealand had mixed results when it came to the WHO's guidelines, Hales said. "If you look in global terms, then New Zealand is doing pretty well. We're not meeting all of the guidelines all of the time, but we are getting close and in many places we do meet the guidelines for most of the time, so that's something that many countries can't say. "On the other hand, I think we need to be doing more. We need to have more incentives for the kind of policies that I was suggesting before." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
6 hours ago
- RNZ News
Aged Care Association says ward for medically discharged shows need for funding
The 20-bed ward was created in May for people who were effectively medically discharged but did not have anywhere to go for lower level care. Photo: rafaelbenari/123RF The Aged Care Association says the the additional ward at North Shore Hospital demonstrates a need for Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand (HNZ) to start paying care homes to support people who are not yet ready to return home. The 20-bed ward, known as ward six, was created in May for people who were effectively medically discharged but did not have anywhere to go for lower level care, because of their specific needs. RNZ understands they are not under the direct care of doctors, but being looked after by nurses and allied health staff such as physiotherapists and social workers. HNZ's Waitematā operations director Brad Healey said they had started the dedicated ward to help boost capacity in the busy winter period. But Aged Care Association chief executive Tracey Martin told Checkpoint there had been an underfunding of the residential care sector for some time, and the government needed to work out a way to compensate aged care facilities for taking in people in similar situations to those in ward six. "The shortage is not new. The fact that we've got an ageing population and so more people will need residential care, or somewhere secondary to recover ... rather than taking up an acute bed in a hospital is not new," she said. Care homes had the facilities to support people in their rehabilitation and transition out of hospital, but HNZ needed to review how those beds were paid for, she said. "Our sector has got registered nurses, enrolled nurses, nurse practitioners, we have GPs ... they have healthcare assistance ... Those with hospital level care have got all of the equipment. "They're there and they are capable of actually taking in individuals ... and working with them so that they are ready to go home, and are unlikely to then have to be readmitted to hospital because they have been released too soon." The challenge was that there was not a proper funding model to pay for a person receiving that kind of care, she said. "Because that person is not entering residential care it will require a contract between Health New Zealand and the facility, and the provider, to pay a certain price per day to actually provide the care and the support that person needs." Currently the model provided by HNZ put forward had "no evidence base" and did not match the cost of providing that care, she said. There was a shortage of some 12,000 beds compared to what was needed now and what would be needed in the future, and businesses needed to be compensated by the government for any work they did to pick up the slack, she said. "Te Whatu Ora themselves said that these individuals need a very high level of care. And if they're not prepared to pay a private business for them, then that business is going to make a loss. "Really, it's the government's responsibility to look after its citizens if they need clinical care," Martin said. Despite the wide capabilities of care homes in New Zealand, Martin said she was unsure whether the individuals in ward six could be placed under the care of an aged care facility as she did not know their conditions. HNZ apparently thought there was no aged care home in the country that could look after them for them, she said. "I guess they'll just have to stay in hospital if that's the case. "I think it's unusual," she said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
8 hours ago
- RNZ News
Hospital ward full of patients with no medical need to be there
A ward of people at Northshore Hospital that have no medical reason to be there, but can't be discharged because they have nowhere to go for further care is the tip of the iceberg, according the Aged Care Association. The 20-bed ward was created in May for patients and RNZ understands the people there were not under the direct care of doctors, but were looked after by nurses and allied health staff such as physiotherapists and social workers. There is effectively nowhere for them to be discharged to further care, like an aged care facility. Chief executive of the Aged Care Association, Tracey Martin. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
