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Hanna wasn’t surprised to learn they live in one of Victoria’s asthma hotspots
By Aisha Dow, Henrietta Cook and Craig Butt
The main street of Ballarat, with its ornate heritage buildings, tells the story of the city’s “boomtown” era. But not so far from the centre of town, gold rush architecture gives way to tired homes with chain-wire fences, and a disproportionate number of residents suffer from chronic illness.
The Ballarat suburbs of Sebastopol and Redan, in the south of the regional city, and Wendouree and Miners Rest to the north, have the highest asthma rates in Victoria. An analysis of census data as part of this masthead’s State of Our Health series shows that about 14 per cent and 13 per cent of their populations, respectively, have the long-term lung condition.
Hanna Elliot is not surprised their neighbourhood has one of the highest rates of asthma in Victoria.Credit: Jason South
The state average is 8.35 per cent, while the Melbourne suburbs of Dandenong South, Docklands, Craigieburn, Tarneit, Clayton and Truganina have asthma rates lower than 5 per cent.
A critical part of the picture is that asthma-prone Wendouree and Sebastopol in Ballarat are also among Victoria’s most-disadvantaged suburbs, according to data from the 2021 census.
The Age has created a new tool that allows you to see how the health of residents in your area compares with the statewide average.
Hanna Elliot, who has asthma, lives with a cat and a rescued bird in a small granny flat in Wendouree. When they heard that their suburb had one of the highest incidences of asthma in the state, it did not shock them “in the slightest”.
“There would be a lot of environmental asthma causes in a place like this,” said Elliot, 28, speaking from their couch on a biting winter’s day.
“There’s a lot of people who smoke”, Elliot said, noting most of the houses in the surrounding suburban streets were “cheaper rentals”.
“When you don’t know who’s lived in a place before, it can definitely be harder. [For example] if there was a smoker in a place before, or if there’s mould, in that rental environment, you can’t control it.”
Elliot keeps their asthma under control with a daily steroid preventer, but it can still be triggered by smoke and, as is the case for most asthma sufferers, Elliot lives with another chronic illness. They developed chronic fatigue syndrome in 2021 after a viral illness.
The impact of people’s living environment and the inherent advantages or disadvantages of their postcode is a major concern of Asthma Australia chief executive Michele Goldman, who said that while asthma was often described as a lifestyle disease, “that’s really an oversimplified view”.
“We know much of the cause for chronic diseases… are linked to environmental, economic and social factors, and are very strongly influenced by social disadvantage.”
For example, there are many triggers linked to lower-quality housing that people relying on rental accommodation will find difficult or impossible to avoid. Goldman said that gas stoves were now estimated to cause 12 per cent of childhood asthma cases, and dampness was responsible for 8 per cent.
Faeces from cockroaches and rodents were also a common trigger, said Goldman, as was the presence of nearby coal mines and poor outdoor air quality.
“People living in lower socioeconomic areas are often located closer to industry, and they may live in neighbourhoods that have more wood heaters or live closer to highways. Again, there’s well established research that shows people who live closer to high-traffic roads have a greater incidence of asthma.”
Ballarat general practitioner Mohd Faahimi Rozi believes that the high rates of asthma in a number of Ballarat suburbs deserve investigation so that the situation can be improved. But from his practice on a main road in Sebastopol, he could already think of a list of possible causes, including the greenery that surrounded the town, which creates pollen, and the city’s notoriously cold weather.
He said that in Sebastopol, which along with Redan has the highest asthma rate in Victoria, there were many older rental houses, some of which had mould problems.
Rozi said he gave ideas to his patients about how they might ward off the damp, or offered to write a letter to their rental agency.
Dr Mohd Faahimi Rozi said there were often several factors impacting his patients’ asthma.Credit: Jason South
The GP said he also encountered patients who were struggling with asthma because someone in their house smoked.
“It’s quite tough,” he said. “Some of them don’t smoke in the house, they smoke outside, and still the child or the wife has issues.”
In 2020, 417 Australians died of asthma, and earlier data has indicated that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders die at twice the rate from the disease as other Australians.
Michele Goldman said Australia had one of the highest rates of asthma in the world (about 11 per cent) and she worried that climate change and extreme weather events were playing a part.
The centre of Ballarat is full of ornate buildings, unlike some of its poorer suburbs.
Melbourne’s thunderstorm asthma event claimed 10 lives in November 2016. Recent heavy rainfall and flooding have triggered a mould epidemic, while bushfires spewed smoke around the country in 2019 and 2020.
Goldman said it was important that people understood the link between managing or preventing chronic illness through healthy eating and exercise, and avoiding smoking and alcohol, but she felt like too much blame was placed on individuals.
“Eighty five per cent of early deaths from chronic diseases occur in disadvantaged communities. The link is very strong.”
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