Nibbling around edges

Asthma responds

THANK you reader C. Johnson for your timely letter (“Chimneys slowly killing us, Letters, July 9). As a recent addition to Rosetta after living on southern acreage, and as an early morning walker with adult asthma, I can attest to all of the letter. An early morning photo of these northern suburbs would show how low to the ground the wood smoke sits. As I walk past various houses, one can smell acrid smoke (not suitably seasoned wood). It takes a good wind to push all this smoke out and away but it can sit heavily well past midday. And my asthma responds very promptly.

What does that smoke do to young little bodies? Certainly we are not looking any different from a recent early morning trip into Launceston’s wood smoke. In Launceston they told me the wood fire smoke improved greatly since their campaign some four years ago. When can governments/local councils start an innovative campaign to get rid of the wood heaters? Does Tasmania have a Clean Air Act which monitors this problem? Aren’t we out of the log cabin mentality yet? perses smoke quickly. Watch the way children are delighted by a fire. There is something very special about the scent from the flickering flames and the glowing coals on a cold, wet night. It gives me more comfort and pleasure than an electric heater could ever provide. I won’t give up my wood fire. THERE goes the dear old Hobart City Council, nibbling around the edges again without any suggestion it has any sort of a long-term solution (eg a tunnel) in place. Anyway, if the State Government is going to take over Macquarie and Davey streets, then it should be co-operating on a longterm solution. The feds are throwing infrastructure grants around. Why aren’t the HCC/State Government in the queue with a long-term proposal to solve southern Tasmania’s main infrastructure problem? lions of dollars to professional sport be it football, V8 supercars or tennis. It is reasonable to provide facilities for the public to partake of sports but to subsidise the vast wealth of the professional sports bureaucracies with their overpaid executives and “stars” is just a waste of scarce resources.