AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND'S ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH: 2023
These are the findings from EHINZ’s surveillance of Aotearoa New Zealand’s environmental health, during 2022-23.
All information below is linked to the respective reports or webpages.
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CLIMATE CHANGE |
AIR QUALITY |
INDOOR ENVIRONMENT |
WATER QUALITY |
ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS(What has changed) |
Most years since 2010 had more hot and fewer cold days compared to the baseline. Extreme rainfall in 2022 affected the same regions as Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023. |
WHO air quality guidelines were exceeded at most stations monitoring nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in 2020. |
Maternal smoking decreased over the past decade, with Māori rates down 10 percentage points. Census data is limited for heating, crowding and second-hand smoke exposure. |
The percentage of New Zealanders with access to registered and/or fluoridated drinking water has not changed in the past decade. |
EFFECTS ON HEALTH INDICATORS |
Climate change may increase:
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3,300 deaths were associated with human-made concentrations of NO2 and PM2.5 in 2016, with 2,227 linked to vehicles. The light vehicle fleet is growing and ageing with 4.5 million in 2021. New Zealand has 25 PM2.5 and 12 NO2 monitoring stations. There are also few stations monitoring CO and SO2 levels. National reporting is limited by the few stations and restricted spatial coverage. |
About 78% of New Zealanders on registered drinking-water supplies had access to water meeting all bacteriological, protozoal and chemical safety requirements. All monitored freshwater bathing sites in Gisborne, Taranaki, Nelson, and Southland regions received ‘poor’ grades from 2017 to 2022. |
Health conditions related to poor indoor environments show extensive inequities for children. This domain consistently has the greatest inequities within the EHINZ program. Occupational lead absorption notification rates are high for Pacific peoples, males and those living in more deprived areas. |
VULNERABLE POPULATIONS AND INEQUITIES
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Māori, reliant on primary industries are concentrated in these regions. |
Māori, Pacific, and children in more socioeconomically deprived areas have the highest medicated asthma and asthma hospitalisation rates. Asthma hospitalisations in children and childhood onset have been linked to NO2. |
People living in rural areas and small communities were less likely to have drinking-water that met safety standards. | Māori and Pacific children, and children in more socioeconomically deprived areas had higher hospitalisation rates for asthma and LRTI and notifications for SUDI, and meningococcal. |
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
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DATA
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Delays in receiving data and its quality (eg, inaccurate, incomplete) continue to have a major effect on the surveillance of several indicators in 2022/23.. The air quality and indoor environment sections above provide examples of a few of these issues. |