NATIONAL NEWS - It was “unlikely” that the rotten egg sulphur smell that plagued parts of Gauteng and North West last month was harmful to residents’ health, a government department has said.
This was despite a departmental task team not having concluded its investigations into the matter though.
“Investigations are still ongoing to determine whether there was an industrial emergency that could have contributed to the smell,” said Department of Environmental Affairs spokesperson Albi Modise.
The stench of sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, described as smelling like a rotten egg mixed with a burnt match, caused concern among residents when it resurfaced from 7 to 12 June.
The smell first plagued parts of the two provinces in 2021.
According to the task team’s findings, the smell emanated from industry operations in the Secunda and Mpumalanga regions.
The team was created that year by the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries to investigate the sulphurous smell.
Investigators included environmental and air quality officials from the national and provincial departments of Gauteng, North West and the Free State.
Modise said the investigations had not finished “as engagement with industries from identified areas where hydrogen sulphide was of concern was ongoing”.
He said unusual air circulation patterns, caused by a low-pressure system in the north of the Mozambique channel, blew the smell over Gauteng and parts of North West.
“These conditions may have created prevailing south-easterly winds that transported air pollution from Mpumalanga into Gauteng and the North West, particularly over Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg and Pretoria,” Modise said.
“Immediate air quality monitoring observations showed that despite industries complying with air quality standards – in Gauteng and Mpumalanga – levels of sulphur dioxide were higher than usual during the period in question.
“The department will address the short- and long-term management of sulphurous odorants with industries releasing the materials.”
According to him, interim investigations showed it was “unlikely” that the release of large quantities of sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide caused any health effects on surrounding communities.
Modise said the task team’s interim internal report was handed to forestry, fisheries and environment minister Barbara Creecy.
