The Star: September 21, 2023

Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Thursday September 21 2023 The Star
NEWS 9
Air purifiers donated to help deal
with Bromley’s ‘putrid smell’
• By Adam Burns
A PARENT believes her
asthmatic son will spend more
time in class after his primary
school was donated dozens of air
purifiers to help “clear the air”.
It comes as residents in Bromley
grapple with the ongoing
“putrid smell” in the area, linked
to both the city council-owned
compost and wastewater treatment
plants.
Extensive criticism has been
laboured at the city council over
the problem, with complaints
about worsening respiratory
symptoms, headaches and mental
health issues.
The Asthma and Respiratory
Foundation NZ has gifted 40
air purifiers to Bromley School,
to help pupils with asthma and
their families.
Some parents began picking
up their purifiers from the
school on Tuesday.
Connor McCallum, 10, has
chronic respiratory symptoms
and autism. His mother Lecia
said she hoped an air purifier
would result in him spending
more time in class.
“He’s more distressed when
he’s wheezy and
worried if he’s
going to be able to
breathe properly,”
she said.
“As a family
it would be nice
not to be tired, Scot Kinley
it would be nice
not to be worried about what
the night will be like, it would
be nice to be able to sleep and it
would be nice to be able to send
him to school.
“Air quality here has been
pretty awful.”
Connor said it was tough for
both him and some of the other
children to cope.
“The smell is bad, not very
good and not very nice.”
Fellow parent Nicole Williams
said her son Bentley had been
absent from school “70 per cent
of this year”.
“He’s really asthmatic. He’s
also had Covid. It’s just crazy,
we’re just constantly at the doctors.
She hoped trips to the doctors
would become less frequent.
“Waking up during the night
coughing and viral infections,
BREATHE BETTER: Lecia and Connor McCallum among
the supply of air purifiers at Bromley School.
PHOTO: ADAM BURNS/RNZ
hopefully that’ll stop.”
Bromley School principal Scot
Kinley said ongoing air quality
issues had taken a toll on teachers
and pupils.
“Multiple students have been
forced to stay home due to health
issues arising from the foulsmelling
air. It’s simply unacceptable
that our community has
had to put up with this.”
Forty pupils have asthma at
the school, accounting for 10 per
cent of the school roll, Kinley
said.
Christchurch residents are
being asked to decide what they
want to do with their green
waste over the next couple of
years while a new compost plant
is being built, with options
including sending it straight to
the dump or shipping it off to the
North Island.
There were five options out
for public consultation. They
included sending all green waste
to landfill, reducing the amount
processed at Bromley and sending
some to landfill, partially
treating the material at Bromley
and then sending it elsewhere,
or doing all the processing elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the city council is
still negotiating with its insurer
following the catastrophic fire at
the wastewater treatment plant.
The blaze badly damaged the
plant’s two trickling filters in
November 2021, affecting the
quality of effluent flowing into
the system.
Asthma and Respiratory
Foundation NZ chief executive
Letitia Harding said she hoped
the air purifiers would help affected
families.
“Every breath matters,
especially for our children. So
when we learned that students
were struggling with worsening
asthma symptoms because of the
stench, we knew we had to help.
“Managing daily symptoms
is challenging enough for our
children – they should not have
to endure this added burden.”
Harding said the response
from local authorities was also a
factor in the decision to gift the
devices.
“Maybe council needs to move
their offices down into (Bromley)
school for a couple of months
and see how they find it.”
– RNZ
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