Air pollution: a silent killer we must urgently act on

In fact last week the government hosed down reports that it is planning to introduce a new fuel efficiency standard for cars.

Under the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development proposal, all new cars sold in Australia would have to meet a target of 105gCO2/km from 335gCO2/km in 2015.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries was reported in the media as saying that the proposed standard was "unrealistic and ill-considered".

A second and intertwined problem is that of diesel vehicles. These vehicles have been promoted on the basis of greater efficiency and therefore reducing greenhouse emissions. However, it has become increasingly clear that diesel engines are more harmful as they produce far more fine particulate matter than their petrol counterparts. Plus, diesel exhaust is now confirmed to be a cause of lung cancer.

One solution is to fit expensive filters and sophisticated controls to diesel vehicles to reduce particulate emissions. But these are prone to failure or worse.

This was sensationally highlighted by the recent VW- gate scandal where cars were found to perform far worse in the real world than under test conditions and thus leading to far greater exposure to harmful emissions in our cities.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals that the number of diesel cars has grown disproportionately in recent years. This comes at a time when our cities are getting more densely populated and more congested. This does not bode well for future urban health.

Australia has signed up to the Paris climate agreement and this will mean reducing carbon emissions from transport as well as other sectors of our economy. But rather than framing this as an economic cost, doctors see it as a mechanism to reduce air pollution and thereby improve public health, especially within our cities.

It is extraordinary that sections of industry would kick back against measures which would not only improve fuel economy and save money at the bowser, but reduce toxic air pollution at the same time. Equally perplexing is that Minister Frydenberg flatly denied any changes, made no attempt to give some context, and thus kicked the can down the road.

While how we do this is open to debate, as doctors we urge the government to put politics aside and put the health of the Australian community first.