Dr Au began an investigation into the incidence of asthma across the Singleton population 12 months ago. This study will be undertaken over five years.

This latest second stage involves collecting additional information about children’s health and medical history.

“It will involve finding out how many children in Broke have asthma, if they have any other illnesses or had any other illnesses and other things like how long they have been in the Broke area for,” he told The Singleton Argus yesterday.

The questionnaire also asks participants about changes they notice in their child when away on holidays from the Broke area, any odours they have noticed in or around their home they believe has come from industry and how concerned they are about the affect of air pollution from industry on their child’s health.

Once the questionnaire has been rolled out in the Broke area it will be distributed through others areas such as Camberwell and Jerrys Plains.

Dr Au said it was always his plan to conduct a questionnaire as part of his five year study of Singleton residents.

If clearance is granted by the Royal Australian College of Australian Practitioners, Dr Au expects the questionnaire will start to be rolled out by the end of September.

“Hopefully this will see data collected and graphed showing results by the end of November early December,” he said yesterday.

Dr Au told The Singleton Argus last year that preliminary results from his study of the lung function of over 800 school students showed one in six had a reduced lung function test result.

This is compared to Branxton which showed one in 20 had a reduced lung function.

Dr Au’s testing of school students lung function continues with him adding another 100 students to his study this year.

Dr Au decided to conduct the study in response to a call from the broader community for a health study to look at a possible connection between respiratory conditions and other health ailments and air quality.