Eight Rotorua deaths a year are being blamed on air pollution.
The latest report by the Health Research Council puts the annual Rotorua figure for deaths caused by the city's polluted atmosphere at 8. This makes it the third worst provincial centre in the country, behind Nelson and Timaru, for
deaths of this kind.
Another 10 Rotorua residents suffer from respiratory difficulties and 5 from cardiac problems because of the state of the city's atmosphere.
Rotorua's air pollution is blamed on wood burners and open fires.
Councillor Russell Judd, a member of the working party investigating ways to improve the city's air quality by 2013, said burning wet wood and plastics contributed to Rotorua's high emission rates.
"It's certainly a problem and that is why the Government is looking at ways to solve the problem with legislation."
The regional council, Environment Bay of Plenty, has already warned Rotorua residents they could face bills of up to $8000 to upgrade existing wood burners, including those with wetbacks.
The reason for this is the city continually breached government clean air standards.
Attention was drawn to Rotorua's pollution problems after national air quality regulations were introduced in 2005.
The health research council's four-year $1 million study, which covered 67 urban areas, reveals as many as 1079 New Zealanders die each year because of pollution-related illnesses, with one in 20 dying earlier than they would have done had pollution not been an aggravating factor.
The regional council has been charged by the Government with improving the air quality in Rotorua's urban area by 2013.
"It's important for the health of our residents that we have clean safe air to breath. However people need to be able to heat their homes and keep their businesses going," Environment Bay of Plenty environmental planner Karen Parcell said. "The last thing we want is for people to stop using their wood-burning fireplaces to keep warm during winter."
Using good wood burning techniques and upgrading their heating systems would make a positive impact on the city's air quality, she said.
