Alarming research published today showing the damage to foetuses caused by pollution from traffic fumes will surprise Sydney mothers-to-be. That’s because only two months ago the city’s mums were assured by Science Minister Verity Firth, who is also the assistant Environment Minister, that Sydney’s air was cleaner and healthier than at any time in the past 15 years. Wow – just suck it in and feel the buzz.

She said the air pollution data, compiled by the NSW Government, showed that emissions of harmful air pollutants have “decreased significantly” over the 15-year period despite a 23% increase in the city’s population and 640,000 more cars on the road.

It doesn’t seem to have occurred to Ms Firth that her figures are an absurdity. No metropolis on Planet Earth has improved its air quality through higher population density and more trucks, cars, buses, taxis and motorbikes.

She did have one helpful suggestion, however: “Lawnmowers are actually quite a polluting instrument so we will be working with councils about lawnmowers.”

Now the Brisbane research – not sponsored by the NSW Government but the highly respected Queensland University of Technology – has hit today’s media giving a scientific and far more challenging view of the impact of high levels of air pollution.

After studying ultrasound scans from more than 15,000 foetuses during a 10-year period, the research team led by Adrian Bennett found that women living in postcodes with high levels of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter in the air had babies with shorter femur bones and smaller head and abdominal circumferences.

“If the pollution levels were high, the size of the foetus decreased significantly,” Dr Bennett said.

How could the NSW Science Minister have made such ludicrous claims about Sydney’s air quality which is among the most polluted in Australia? It’s because the culture of the Iemma Government is to get ministers to sell “positive” stories. As a result, media staff are set the appalling task of cranking out old, moth-eaten, slightly chewed and underdone stories so that the minister’s profile is up and the government looks as if it is doing something (when in fact it’s immobilised by funding straitjackets, lack of direction, inept decision-making and wide-ranging incompetence).

Of course, it would be naïve to expect the government to promote “negative” stories about itself: there are plenty of those about already. But Ms Firth and other Ministers will do themselves a favor if they jump off the media trampoline constructed by former Premier Bob Carr and his eminence grises Walt Secord and Amanda Lampe. Rather than issue a weekly barrage of “positive” press statements to meet the targets set by the Premier’s media unit, why not try another tactic and actually do something that’s practical and may improve things for the citizenry? Just a suggestion.