Public forum exploring generational changes to women's health

BY SIOBHAN HARVEY 

Newcastle Institute are holding their first public forum of the year this Wednesday on Generational Changes in Women's Health. 

University of Newcastle academic Professor Julie Byles will share the insights into healthy ageing that she has found from conducting the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's health. 

The study started over 25 years ago and has involved surveying over 57 thousand women from all over Australia. 

During the study Professor Byles noticed that mental health generally tends to improve as women age however, it is clear that COVID - 19 has taken its toll on younger women. 

"Women now are more distressed than women the same age 25 years ago," she said.

"When COVID came along we found through surveying women every two weeks during 2020 and some of 2021, that the younger the women were the more they were distressed and the more they were distressed in relation to COVID." 

Professor Byles said over the past 25 years women across four generations have provided a wealth of data on their lives, their health, and their health care use. 

From her research there has been many interesting and useful findings, some hopeful and some concerning. 

"I've been really lucky because I've concentrated on ageing, and the things that surprise me there have been less concerning and more positive and hopeful about women's adaptability and their ability to reinvent themselves," she said. 

During the forum she will talk about the circumstances younger generations are facing and whether or not health care systems are up to par with women's health. 

"The other thing that I think is very important is looking at our health systems and our society and thinking whether or not we have the right shaped society for who we are as people and what our life course looks like." 

The forum will be held at Newcastle United Sports Club from 6pm to 7.30pm, the event is free and there is no need to book. 

University of Newcastle academic Professor Julie Byles AO 

Newcastle Set to Host Air Quality Review Forum

BY LILLY HAINES

Newcastle is set to host an air quality forum next week to discuss proposed new standards for toxic air pollutants in the region.

A government committee reviewing national air pollution standards is visiting the area to hear from people affected by exposure to toxic gas air pollutants.

The review process is looking at the levels of oxides of nitrogen and related gases sulphur dioxide and ozone.

The review of ambient air pollutants is occurring 21 years after national air pollution standards were introduced.

Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) issued a report in February showing coarse particle pollution had worsened in many parts of NSW over the past 12 months, including areas in the Hunter.

The report showed coarse particles exceeded the annual standard at nine locations, up from 2 locations in 2017 and none in previous years.

Eight of these locations were located in the Hunter at sites including Mt Thorley, Singleton, Muswellbrook, Mayfield, Carrington, and Beresfield.

"The Hunter region has quite high levels of particle air pollution both for coarse particles which are mostly coming from coal mines and for finer particles which are coming from fires and coal-fired power stations," Dr Ben Ewald from DEA said.

Dr Ewald said there is also a problem with sulphur dioxide air pollution, which he says is mostly emitted by the power stations but can also come from aluminium smelting.

"Nitrogen dioxide tends to be more of a problem down in Sydney because it's mostly a traffic related thing, but sulphur dioxide is a problem in places like Muswellbrook with exposure to power stations," said Dr Ewald.

"And that shows up also in the monitors close to the Tomago aluminium smelter."

Dr Ewald also said there are serious health risks linked to exposure to ambient gases, with fine particle pollutants increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes as well as having an association with lung cancer.

Respiratory irritations, like triggering asthma attacks, have been linked to suplhur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide exposure with statistics showing a greater proportion of people experience respiratory irritations in the Upper Hunter than other parts of the state.

The air quality forum will be held at Newcastle Town Hall on Tuesday 23rd July beginning at 5:30pm.

Liddell Power Station near Muswellbrook. Image: AAP. 

Farmers hit back at Government Proposal

BY: ALEX MURRAY

A public forum was held this morning at the Wine Country Motor Inn with discussions of the government's proposed production and rural development policy and its protections for farmers.

The proposal is aiming to support sustainable agriculture and changes to planning particularly those requiring development consent. 

As Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter, Scot Macdonald says, "Primary production and managing rural development is vitally important to the Hunter." 

Although, the NSW Farmers Association is calling on the government to consider the restrictions placed on rural farmers in the development of the proposal and to have an understanding of their working conditions. 

Hunter Regional Manager of NSW Farmers, David Banham says: "The message is loud and clear from the people in the room today that there's still work to be done and it needs to be done properly."

"There was certainly discussion around the fragmentation of agricultural land and the minimum lot size which could be potentially changed or present issues." 

"It's a big change from the existing environmental planning policies we've got...including problems where certain farms won't be requiring development consent to go ahead." 

"We've identified some of the issues early on...but we're always looking for positive outcomes from these changes, we just need to need to ensure the planning department understand farming and the issues around it so they can create the right policies."