6 July 2026
Internal documents reveal Darwin senior doctors warned NT government of LNG cancer risk two years ago
Photo Credit: Dan Broun, ECNT
A Climate Integrity investigation has uncovered a letter from senior doctors at Darwin’s main hospital, warning the Territory’s Chief Minister about the health risks of carcinogenic emissions from LNG processing near populated areas.
The letter was sent almost two years ago. Yet, the Northern Territory Government only announced a new plan to start continuous monitoring of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCS), such as the known carcinogen, benzene, last month.
There is an accountability gap at the heart of the LNG industry’s operations in the Territory. We’ve seen a succession of scandals, from Inpex systematically under-reporting its emissions, to Santos failing to disclose a fugitive methane gas leak from its LNG storage tank - and yet, expansion plans are still underway, including a potential $1.5 billion equity investment from the Federal Government for even more gas processing at Middle Arm.
It’s time for more transparency and accountability from gas companies and better government oversight.
By Alexandra Blucher and Kate Melville-Rea
The warning the NT government sat on
Click image to expand: Letter from the Medical Advisory Committee of Royal Darwin and Palmerston Hospital to NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro, warning of public health risks from LNG production in Darwin. Obtained under Freedom of Information. All released documents available here.
Senior medical staff at Darwin’s biggest hospital warned the Northern Territory Chief Minister almost two years ago that air pollution from existing and proposed LNG processing plants pose serious health risks to “many thousands” of people, internal government documents reveal.
The Medical Advisory Committee (MAC) for the Royal Darwin Hospital and Palmerston Regional Hospital raised concerns that INPEX’s Ichthys LNG plant, which processes LNG for export, was “emitting dangerous amounts of toxic pollution and are not being held accountable” and that no pollution limits were being imposed on LNG producers.
Correspondence that we have obtained through Freedom of Information shows the committee wrote to the newly elected Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro in September 2024.
The committee warned that “mounting scientific evidence” shows that LNG and petrochemical production are harmful to health, particularly for children, pregnant women and the elderly.
“Research shows that residents living near gas facilities have higher rates of asthma, pregnancy complications, birth defects, cancers, kidney and heart disease due to pollutant exposure.”
The doctors told the Chief Minister that they were concerned that the air pollution may increase the rates of cancer and serious illnesses.
“LNG production so close to population centres in Darwin is dangerous and puts many thousands of our most vulnerable residents at serious risk.”
The committee asked the Chief Minister to ensure her government excluded “toxic, polluting industries like LNG and petrochemicals from highly populated regions like Darwin and Palmerston.”
The letter signed by Co-Chairs Dr Adrienne Deans and Dr Kaspar Wilson recommended a list of actions, including urgently expanding air monitoring to include “continuous monitoring of Volatile Organic Compounds [VOCs] and air toxics” in Darwin and Palmerston.
Despite the urgent warnings in September 2024, the NT Government only announced a new plan to start monitoring VOCs such as the known carcinogen, benzene, last month. Late last year, the NT Government also initiated a review of LNG producers’ licence conditions which is due mid-2026.
The World Health Organisation’s benzene guidelines state that, “Benzene is carcinogenic to humans and no safe level of exposure can be recommended.”
INPEX’s history of systematic under-reporting
INPEX Ichthys reported VOC composition 2018–19 to 2024–25
Source: National Pollutant Inventory (NPI).
Above: Climate Integrity visualisation of VOC data submitted annually by INPEX to the National Pollutant Inventory under DCCEEW. We cannot verify the accuracy of these submitted figures, as the underlying methodology and granular results have not been made publicly available.
INPEX's Ichthys LNG plant, which processes gas from the Browse Basin for export, has been under growing scrutiny over its emissions for several years.
The ABC reported that in 2021-22, INPEX emitted 11,000 tonnes of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) at the Ichthys LNG plant near Darwin – far greater than the 500 tonnes per annum estimated in its Environmental Impact Statement.
Last October, INPEX revealed it had dramatically under-reported the amount of benzene it emitted in 2023-24 by a factor of 135, revising the figure from 4.12 tonnes to 556.9 tonnes. Toluene – another toxic VOC emitted by the plant – was under-reported by a factor of 113, rising from 5.05 tonnes to 569.8 tonnes.
INPEX has not released any recalculated figures for its five years of operation before 2023-24.
The company’s own data shows that in the years it recalculated, benzene and toluene’s combined share of total VOCS was more than 26 per cent in 2023-24.
However, in 2021-22 which hasn’t been recalculated, the amount of VOCs emitted was much higher and benzene and toluene only made up 0.12 per cent of the total.
What the NT Government wrote back to the Committee
The correspondence from the Medical Advisory Committee was redirected to the NT department of health at the request of the Chief Health Officer at the time, Dr Christine Connors, who responded on November 4, 2024.
Dr Christine Connors told the committee that the NT Government is committed to ensuring “any proposed industry [at the proposed Middle Arm precinct] that poses an unacceptable risk to human health, either individually or cumulatively, will not be permitted.”
Dr Connors outlined actions that the NT Government was taking to address the issue more broadly:
A Strategic Environmental Assessment had previously been commissioned, which includes an assessment of atmospheric emissions and a Human Health Impact Assessment.
Future projects will need to provide air quality modelling and health impact assessments
NT Health and the NT Environment Protection Authority are working with Centre for Safe Air (Tasmania) “to ensure that future NT air quality monitoring programs are fit for purpose and include air toxic monitoring, as well as improving strategies to reduce particulates.”
Darwin paediatrician says “measuring air toxics is not enough to keep people safe”
“Darwin residents should be furious that it took close to two years for the Finocchiaro Government to respond to this urgent health warning and expand air quality monitoring,” said Climate Integrity Executive Director, Claire Snyder.
Senior campaigner at the Environment Centre NT, Bree Ahrens, said that “Instead of listening to the experts and taking immediate action to protect the health of our community, it took two years and several huge scandals for the NT Government to take any action.”
“The people of Darwin and Palmerston have been let down by the gas industry and by the Government that should be acting in our interest,” she said.
Gas giants INPEX and Santos process LNG for export at Middle Arm peninsula in Darwin. Both facilities release air toxics into the atmosphere called Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), including benzene.
Fracking company Tamboran Resources Corporation is also planning a new LNG processing plant at the Middle Arm precinct.
INPEX has faced public pressure from environmental and health advocates demanding greater transparency over its true emissions of air toxics, after massively underestimating the amount of benzene it had emitted in previous years.
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Darwin pediatrician, Dr Louise Woodward, is the Chair of a community project called Community Healthy Air NT, which has raised money to buy a community air monitor due to concerns with air pollution from the LNG plants.
Dr Woodward said the two-year lag time means there has been further delays in understanding the risk to the community.
“Many cancers associated with exposure to VOCs such as Benzene can take years to develop and can occur with exposure to very low levels (leukaemia),” she said.
“Measuring air toxics is not enough to keep people safe. The EPA and NT Government needs to put strict limits on pollution emissions…and enforce the use of pollution reduction technology such as thermal oxidisers, acid gas incinerators and vapour recovery systems”
Ms Ahrens, from ECNT, said the delay means that important decisions about current LNG facilities “have been made without accurate baseline information.”
“Decisions like the renewal of Santos’ license for its leaking LNG tank and the decision to allow more toxic venting from the same facility were made with no regard for existing levels of toxins in our air. Our communities deserve better,” she said.
Earlier this month, the NT’s Environment Protection Agency approved Santos to emit toxic gasses including benzene for an extra 26 days, increasing the total to 62 days per year.
Climate Integrity’s Ms Snyder, said Darwin’s local residents deserve better.
“INPEX systematically underestimated toxic emissions from its gas processing facility in Darwin Harbour. The NT government took almost 2 years to take action in response to a serious and credible warning about health risks to residents living near gas processing, and now Santos has been given the green light to increase the amount of toxic emissions from its Darwin facility, with 26 extra days of hot venting.”
“We need to see more transparency, more accountability and ultimately a plan from the government to get toxic gas processing out of the Darwin suburbs.”
Claire Snyder
Executive Director, Climate Integrity
Demands for greater transparency
Late last year, the Northern Territory Government ordered several reviews related to LNG processing in Darwin.
The Department of Lands, Planning and Environment announced a review of licensing conditions for LNG facilities in Darwin to examine whether health risks from emissions are being addressed. It is due mid-2026.
A separate, independent review of emissions from INPEX’s Ichthys LNG facility – ordered by the Department and carried out by air quality consultancy Air Environment – was finalised February 2026.
It found that INPEX had systematically underestimated its emissions, including benzene, and “fundamental inaccuracies” have “persisted since production commenced in September 2018.”
Further, it deemed that INPEX’s proposed changes to its emissions reporting “do not adequately address the orders-of magnitude underestimation of AGRU (Acid Gas Removal Unit) emissions, the incomplete source coverage, or the fundamental data quality issues that compromise regulatory compliance and public health protection”.
Dr Louise Woodward said INPEX should publicly release its updated emissions data and modelling from when they began operations in 2018.
“In order to prioritise public health, the licence conditions of Darwin LNG and INPEX Ichthys LNG must be amended to enforce limitation of VOC and BTEX emissions and enforce the use of pollution control technology with prohibition of the intentional venting of acid gas.
“Conditions such as these are used by the US EPA to comply with the US Clean Air Act. Australia does not have a Clean Air Act or federal regulations for air pollution.”
Dr Louise Woodward
Chair, Community Healthy Air NT
Senior campaigner at the Environment Centre NT, Bree Ahrens, said that given there is “abundant evidence that the toxic chemicals produced by processing LNG are harmful to human health”, the government needs to reconsider plans for the Middle Arm gas hub.
“The NT and Federal Governments remain committed to plans for the Middle Arm gas hub, which will jeopardise public health. In 2022 ECNT released a report by Dr Michael Petroni – a US scientist who has developed risk analysis tools for the US Environmental Protection Agency – which warned that the project may result in a four-fold increase of local industrial cancer risks due to massive emissions of air toxins.
The NT Government can act to prevent this disaster by cancelling this project and requesting that the Federal Government redirect its 1.5b funding commitment to initiatives that will benefit our communities and set us up for the future.”
Senior campaigner, Environment Centre NT
Bree Ahrens
It’s pretty obvious that instead of investing 1.5bn in the Middle Arm gas hub at enormous risk to Darwin residents health, the NT and Federal Governments need to invest that money in new green industries that will both protect residents health from toxic emissions and set Darwin’s economy up for prosperity into the future.”
Executive Director, Climate Integrity
Claire Snyder
As part of our investigation, we posed questions and offered a Right of Reply to INPEX, the Northern Territory Government, and Santos.
INPEX
INPEX has defended its modelling, telling us that its monitoring shows compliance with air quality guidelines and that ambient BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene) levels during the monitoring period were “acceptable.”
“Regular monitoring by INPEX in compliance with applicable air quality guidelines, has consistently demonstrated acceptable ambient air quality during the monitoring periods,” said INPEX Senior Vice President Corporate, Bill Townsend.
Mr Townsend said the company’s modelling methods are technically sound.
“INPEX continues to work cooperatively with the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority (NT EPA) and NT Health.”
Santos
Santos did not respond to our questions.
Northern Territory Government
The NT Government did not respond to our questions.
In February 2026, the NT Government announced the results of an independent human health risk assessment, which was commissioned by the new NT chief health officer (CHO).
A joint statement between the NT EPA and CHO at the time, said that the assessment found that current levels of benzene are below “health based guideline values and are considered acceptable under Australian health policy.”
“This means the risk of human health is very low.”
The independent assessment relied on modelling that excluded consideration of other pollutants, like ethylbenzenes or xylenes, and sources of emissions from the plant other than hot venting.
The authors of the report recommended that a more comprehensive review be conducted.
Darwin and Palmerston residents have been living next to the Ichthys plant since 2018. They are still waiting for answers.