SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being

Below are all Australian news items from all ESG Snapshot issues that are relevant to SDG 3 (good health and well-being), listed with most recent items appearing first.

Issue 56, 12 August 2024

The federal government has established an expert advisory group to provide advice on reducing the impacts of climate change on the nation's health.
 
The Climate and Health Expert Advisory Group, which will be chaired by assistant health minister Ged Kearney, will also support implementation of Australia's first National Health and Climate Strategy, which was launched at COP28.

Issue 54, 29 July 2024

Court ruling - glyphosate. A class action against Huntsman Chemicals has failed, with the Federal Court's Justice Michael Lee ruling that it is not proven on the balance of probabilities that Monsanto's glyphosate herbicide, marketed as Roundup, led to an increase in the risk of developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Issue 38, 8 April 2024

The federal government has released National Pollutant Inventory data for FY23, which provides data on pollutant emissions from more than 4,000 facilities.

Issue 17, 23 October 2023

Statutory development. The NSW Parliament has passed the the Waste Recycling and Processing Corporation (Authorised Transaction) Amendment Bill, which enables the Waste Assets Management Corporation to accept the transfer of contaminated land, and oversee its management or remediation. The Bill passed within a week of its introduction.

Statutory development and consultation opportunity. Submissions are due by 10 November on draft legislation to align NSW's environmental laws with the recently introduced federal IChEMS regime.

Issue 13, 18 September 2023

Businesses covered by the National Pollutant Inventory have until 30 September to report their FY23 emissions.

Issue 6, 31 July 2023

WA's Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council is proposing a new immobilisation plant to treat Air Pollution Control Residue (APCr) from waste to energy plants, and to construct a dedicated landfill cell for the treated residues.

Issue 5, 23 July 2023

Consultation opportunity. The federal government is seeking comments by 1 September on proposed scheduling decisions for managing three groups of PFAS chemicals that have been widely used in firefighting foams - PFOA, PFOS and PFHxS .

Issue 4, 17 July 2023

Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has released the report of an independent review of APVMA, which regulates agvet chemicals, which has found allegations of "chemical industry capture". It has now appointed Ken Matthews to evaluate APVMA's structure and governance. APVMA's chief executive and chair have resigned in recent days.

Issue 3, 10 July 2023

The federal government has gazetted the Industrial Chemicals (General) Amendment (Rotterdam Convention) Rules 2023, which tighten restrictions on the importation of PFOA and on the importation of the fire retardant known as decaBDE.

Issue 2, 3 July 2023

The SA EPA has extended the licence of Nyrstar's Port Pirie smelter for five years, requiring annual gradual reductions in lead-in-air levels.

Issue 1, 26 June 2023

A new Sydney air quality health impact assessment report has found that human activities account for 48% of PM2.5 exposure across the NSW greater metropolitan area, with the key sources being wood heaters (42%), industry (21%), on-road motor vehicles (exhaust) (13%), and power stations (7%). The associated annual health cost for wood heaters is $2,046 million, followed by industry ($1,011 million), on-road motor vehicles ($614 million), and power stations ($346 million).

Test issue, 20 June 2023

Consultation opportunity. Comments close 14 July on proposals to introduce regulatory controls on noxious emissions from non-road diesel engines.