Southland towns record poor winter air

Gore has breached its air quality standards for the first time in four years.

The Southland Regional Council said its Main Street monitoring site recorded high particulate concentrations on Thursday last week, driving its 24-hour average up across the day.

Air quality standards were also eclipsed for the fifth time this winter in Invercargill on Sunday.

The regional council's air and terrestrial science team leader Nick Talbot said the disappointing results showed more work was needed to reduce air pollution levels.

The national air quality standard threshold was 50 micrograms per cubic metre of air. The Main Street monitoring site recorded a level of 51.43mcg.

"Compounding the early morning high concentrations, that evening saw some of the highest PM10 concentrations of the winter to date. This was likely due to cold temperatures and low wind speeds allowing pollution from home heating to accumulate," Talbot said.

PM10s are particles in the air with a diameter less than 10 micrometres.

"It's disappointing to see Gore have an exceedance after such a long period but it shows more work needs to be done to reduce air pollution levels in the airsheds. It's important we continue to work on reducing air pollution because air quality can have adverse impact on people's health.

"Particulates can easily penetrate the lungs, especially for those who are more susceptible to health complications, such as children, the elderly and others with respiratory or cardiac conditions,.

"The way you burn affects your neighbours and neighbourhood. Up to 75 percent of outdoor smoke can make its way into other people's houses."

The measurement in Invercargill was 58.85mcg per cubic metre of air.

Talbot said to reduce particulate matter, wood should be kept "burning hot and bright" and only dry wood should be used in a clean flue and burner.

Any burners installed before 2001 need to be replaced under the region's air plan.