Farmers say push to ban older trucks from Sydney and Melbourne because of the damaging impacts of exhaust fumes would "create a major issue" in getting food to market.
A new Grattan Institute report into air pollution from trucks found truck exhaust pollutants killed more than 400 Australians every year.
It says 14 per cent of Australia's trucking fleet is at least 26 years old, and the older trucks emit 60 times the particulate matter of a new truck, and eight times more nitrogen oxides.
In a move to keep the most polluting trucks away from large populations, the institute is calling for pre-2003 diesel trucks, which have poor pollutant emission standards, to be banned from Melbourne and Sydney by 2025.
Fine dust health risk
Truck exhaust-pipe pollution takes a heavy toll on human health.
Grattan Institute researcher Marion Terill said particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less, known as PM2.5, were a major health risk.
The New South Wales Health Department said these particles were so small they could get deep into the lungs and into the bloodstream.
Exposure to PM2.5 over many years can cause major health problems, and there's no threshold below which exposure to particulate matter doesn't cause poor health effects.
Ms Terill said exposure to the small particles from truck exhausts could cause coronary heart disease, stroke, bladder cancer and type two diabetes.
"Children and elderly people and people who have chronic conditions are particularly vulnerable," she said.
Exposure to particulate matter can also damage to cognitive function.
"The issue is [Australian] pollution standards for heavy vehicles are weak, and they're out of date compared to the rest of the world," Ms Terril said.
She said pollution-reducing truck technology was available but not enforced because Australia had not kept up with international standards.
'Not practical'
Victorian Farmers Federation Transport and Infrastructure Committee chair Ryan Milgate, who is a farmer in Victoria's Wimmera, said it was not practical to exclude older trucks from Melbourne or Sydney.
He said a large portion of them were owned by farmers or trucking companies that serviced the industry.
"I can probably understand if you lived in Footscray Road, where that call is coming from," he said.
"But from a farmer perspective we know there's a significant amount of trucks that are pre-2003 and a lot of them are not trucks we drive to Melbourne every day."
But he said some were used for deliveries to mills and ports in the Melbourne area.
"We'd be quite concerned about that because it would become a major issue for farmers," he said.
Tarranyurk grain farmer Marshall Rodda, in Victoria's north west, said the oldest of his three trucks was built in 1985.
He said replacing it would cost his from $100,000 to $150,000.
"I can’t justify getting rid of it," he said.
"And if we take all the trucks off the road how are we going get the food to the people that need it?"
Mr Rodda said he kept his trucks well maintained and serviced them regularly "which makes them more efficient and probably means they don't emit as much smoke".
However, he said he was unaware of the potential adverse health affects of truck emissions.
Scrap 'pointless truck regulations'
The Grattan Institute said Australian standards needed to catch up to international pollution standards.
Ms Tyrill said the government could help truck operators mitigate the cost of tighter regulations and encourage new replacement trucks by scrapping "pointless truck regulations".
She said they included a requirement that trucks be two per cent narrower than the global standard — which limited the range of less-polluting trucks available to buy in Australia.
"This would give businesses buying trucks access to the latest safety and fuel saving technologies developed for slightly wider trucks," she said.
