Residents demand health inquiry into 'waste odour'

A week after Tracey Butler and her husband moved into their new home in 2018, she noticed people in full hazmat suits walking around her street. "We thought it was a gas leak," she said. The next day, the Queensland Department of Environment knocked on her door to tell her they were conducting tests to see what was in the atmosphere. "I asked why were they wearing full hazmat gear... they replied, 'we don't know what chemicals are out there from these facilities, we don't want to breathe it in our lungs'," Mrs Butler told AAP. What follows over the next six years is thousands of residents of Ipswich, southwest of Brisbane, complaining of odours coming from several waste management facilities, known as the Swanbank landfill, surrounding their suburb. Various descriptions of the smell range from raw sewage, ammonia, ethanol, rotting compost, sour milk and decaying animal bodies. "We haven't slept with our window open in six years, Mrs Butler said. "It's easier to close up the house than to wake up and vomit everywhere." This week, waste management company Cleanaway was handed a landmark fine totalling $600,000 for those odours. It pleaded guilty to seven offences relating to odour nuisance, specifically related to odours than began after extreme rainfall in 2022. "It should have been a million dollars, you know, like the Miles government said," Mrs Butler said. In August this year, the former Labor government introduced strict regulations on "new and expanding composting facilities within four kilometres of residential areas ... to use enclosed or in-vessel facilities if receiving odorous waste". Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding said while she appreciates it's the highest penalty ever handed down under the Environmental Protection Act, it's relatively small given the significant impact the odour has had on the lives of residents. "In fact, a fine of $600,000 is far less than the annual bonuses paid to the executives of this company in the same year this odour occurred," Ms Harding told AAP. Residents also say Cleanaway is not the only waste company responsible for odours and some smells have been around for more than a decade. Some report offensive odours going back up to three decades, according to Mrs Butler, who is an advocate with a community group 'Stop the Stink'. "The odour has been around since 1993, it's been going a long time," she said. "And there's a lot of people suffering from lung cancer and everything else." Residents and the mayor want the long term impact of exposure to the potent smells to be investigated. "The previous Queensland government had declined numerous requests ... for a public health inquiry," Ms Harding explains. The new LNP government campaigned on the promise of establishing a comprehensive public health inquiry to assess the health risks. Then opposition health spokesperson Ros Bates said "Labor has ignored this issue for too long, leaving Ipswich residents in the dark about the potential dangers to their health". A month into its new term, the government is yet to respond to requests from AAP for an update on the status of those plans. "I look forward to meeting with the new Health Minister Tim Nicholls on this matter as a priority," Ms Harding said. However, measuring the health impacts is not a straightforward task according to Dr James Hayes, a researcher at the University of New South Wales Odour and Air Pollution Laboratory. "Odours absolutely can cause health effects in certain circumstances," he told AAP. "The mechanism under which they cause health effects is still under debate." Despite strong anecdotal evidence, correlations are not straightforward. For example, lung cancer rates in areas surrounding the Swanbank landfill are much higher than the national average. It's 16 per cent higher in Ripley, 35 per cent in Springfield and 48 per cent in Redbank Plains. However, Dr Hayes said while it's certainly possible increases in air pollution can contribute to an increased risk of cancer "there are dozens, if not hundreds of environmental reasons why cancer rates can fluctuate." Resident Travis Dunbar-Reid reported chronic and debilitating health symptoms while living in Ipswich that led him to believe he was dying. "I was constantly sick, coughing, sore throats, I had constant burning in my eyes, headaches, nausea. I lost 40 kilos in four months," he told AAP. "It was just chronic. I couldn't sleep at night. It was just penetrating the windows and doors of the houses." Mr Dunbar-Reid reports seeing haze build up under street lights at night, something he attributes to the mound of waste he could see in the distance from his backyard. "I could see the mound growing every day ... they'd fill it with rubbish and cap it off with dirt at night, he said. "The filter in the aircon was like mud. I was constantly washing the back veranda to get rid of the dirt" After seeing a disease specialist, who couldn't figure out what was wrong, Mr Dunbar-Reid and his wife decided to move. Mr Dunbar-Reid says his symptoms disappeared within two weeks of leaving the area. "I've put the weight back on ... I'm feeling healthy again," he said. Although Mr Dunbar-Reid isn't the only resident with health complaints, Dr Hayes reiterates that conclusively linking odours to health outcomes would be a challenging task for an inquiry. He said in some cases, the psychological reaction creates a physical reaction. "That is in no way a discredit to anybody who does suffer health effects from odours, because it's still an impact and very important," he said. With more than 25,000 complaints lodged since 2018, it's clear there are real and lasting effects on community wellbeing. For many, like Mrs Butler, leaving is not a possibility. "We've tried to leave, but we can't afford it. The rent prices are ridiculous and we're on one wage," she said. While there have been many community meetings between the government and residents, Mrs Butler believes the government has catered to waste operators' financial concerns, rather than enforcing stricter regulations. "These cowboy operators say, 'If you want us to enclose our facilities you'll have to help us pay for it', Mr Butler said. "They profit from taking grease trap waste, sewage sludge, and animal carcasses, yet they make us smell it." However, with a new government in place, residents remain hopeful they will get answers.