'Bad Smells and Human Rights: A Human Rights Approach to Noxious Odours From Industrial Waste Disposal in Queensland'

'Bad Smells and Human Rights: A Human Rights Approach to Noxious Odours From Industrial Waste Disposal in Queensland'

'Bad Smells and Human Rights: A Human Rights Approach to
Noxious Odours from Industrial Waste Disposal'

ALAA 2025 Conference,
The University of Queensland, 2-4 July 2025

Abstract
This paper addresses the question of whether noxious odours or pollution that harm an individual’s health or cause environmental harm may also engage international human rights law. In other words, can bad smells amount to a violation of a person’s human rights in certain circumstances?

This question is not merely hypothetical for some Queenslanders. Local residents around Ipswich have complained for years that industrial waste odours emanating from landfill dumps, composting facilities and mulching sites have adversely affected their health, causing eczema rashes, hives and nausea.(1)

On 9 January 2025, the Queensland Health Minister announced the creation of a six-month public health inquiry to investigate the potential health effects of foul odours from the Swanbank and New Chum Industrial Estate.(2)

This paper discusses whether international human rights protections may be engaged by noxious odours causing environmental harm. In such circumstances, international human rights law may be available to guide interpretations of human rights law in Queensland.

The European Court of Human Rights has determined that toxic emissions and environmental pollution may engage a person’s right to privacy under the European Convention on Human Rights.(3) Privacy rights encompass a broad scope of interests, which suggests that s 25 of the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) (‘HRA’) may extend to protecting a person’s right to be free from unlawful or arbitrary interference with their private life or family or home life where the right is adversely affected by pollution that harms their health or well-being. In other words, the noxious odours about which Ipswich residents have complained may also amount to human rights breaches under the HRA.

This paper concludes by proposing that Queensland’s human rights law may be available to protect and assist Ipswich residents who have been affected by the noxious odours from the Swanbank and New Chum Industrial Estate.

Notes:
(1) Tobi Loftus & Shari Hams, ‘Health inquiry to examine impacts odours from waste industry have on health of Ipswich residents’ (ABC News online, 9 January 2025) <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-09/ipswich-odour-health-inquiry-...
(2) See full terms of reference for Queensland Health, ‘Swanbank Public Health Inquiry’ (9 January 2025) at <https://www.health.qld.gov.au/research-reports/reports/review-invest...
(3) Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, opened for signature 4 November 1950, ETS No 005 (entered into force 3 September 1953) (‘European Convention on Human Rights’), article 8.