According to a joint statement from the two lobby groups, four interviewed health experts in the film criticise the impacts of these industries on “human health and wellbeing”.

Among the claims, Curtin University Associate Professor Linda Selvey, a former Greenpeace Australia Pacific CEO, is linking coal mining to cancer.

“Pollution produced from coal mining and combustion in Australia poses a threat to respiratory and cardiac health – with pollutants drawn deep into the lungs and into the bloodstream where they can lead to cancer and heart attacks,” she said.

National Toxics Network senior advisor Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith said concerns that “respiratory and neurological symptoms” in communities near unconventional gas exploration sites were not being properly investigated.

University of Sydney Associate Professor Ruth Colagiuri wants more research on potential impacts from the two industries.

“We don’t know what it’s doing to our communities, so we can’t make sensible policy decisions,” she said.

“We need to know what is happening here before these industries expand any further.”

A preview screening of the film will be held at the University of Melbourne tonight.

A short version of the film is also available online.