Dust samples taken from Mount Isa homes have shown one in five dwellings have unsafe levels of lead, and 11 per cent of children growing up in Queensland’s mining capital have blood poisoning, according to new reports.
Families suing the giant mining company Xstrata, Queensland Government and the local council commissioned experts who found some children in the town had suffered brain damage and retardation caused by long-term exposure to the heavy metal.
Soil testing of residential properties scattered across the entire city had lead levels exceeding Australian safety standards, the Australian newspaper reported.
Queensland chief medical officer Jeanette Young said the testing confirmed that lead exposure was a threat across the city and that some test results were “very high” based on Australian standards.
Maria Macdonald, registered nurse, midwife and chair of the Residents Action Association (RAA), says any level of lead in is exceedingly dangerous. She has been concerned for children’s health in mining towns such as Mount Isa, Perth and Gladstone, for a long time. The action group works hard to bring about community awareness in Bowen and throughout the state.
Around 20km from Bowen, the proposed Abbot Point coal terminal is sizing up to be the largest export multi-cargo facility in the country and possibly the world.
Ms Macdonald fears for the future of the sleepy seaside town and its population of 9,000.
“We do not aspire to be another industrial city as has been made of Mount Isa and Gladstone with the poisoning of the environment and the increased cancer rates of its people,” Maria Macdonald said on the RAA website.
“The Environment Protection Authority is essentially powerless. Under the ‘Special Agreements Act’ State legislation, industries worth over $30 million and involved in developments of ‘State significance’, have in effect, a licence to pollute.
“Under this Act, our rights as citizens to contest these proposals, does not exist. The mining companies do their own environmental reports and the world’s best practice in industrial waste management does not exist in Australia,” she said.
Families suing the giant mining company Xstrata, Queensland Government and the local council commissioned experts who found some children in the town had suffered brain damage and retardation caused by long-term exposure to the heavy metal.
Soil testing of residential properties scattered across the entire city had lead levels exceeding Australian safety standards, the Australian newspaper reported.
Queensland chief medical officer Jeanette Young said the testing confirmed that lead exposure was a threat across the city and that some test results were “very high” based on Australian standards.
Maria Macdonald, registered nurse, midwife and chair of the Residents Action Association (RAA), says any level of lead in is exceedingly dangerous. She has been concerned for children’s health in mining towns such as Mount Isa, Perth and Gladstone, for a long time. The action group works hard to bring about community awareness in Bowen and throughout the state.
Around 20km from Bowen, the proposed Abbot Point coal terminal is sizing up to be the largest export multi-cargo facility in the country and possibly the world.
Ms Macdonald fears for the future of the sleepy seaside town and its population of 9,000.
“We do not aspire to be another industrial city as has been made of Mount Isa and Gladstone with the poisoning of the environment and the increased cancer rates of its people,” Maria Macdonald said on the RAA website.
“The Environment Protection Authority is essentially powerless. Under the ‘Special Agreements Act’ State legislation, industries worth over $30 million and involved in developments of ‘State significance’, have in effect, a licence to pollute.
“Under this Act, our rights as citizens to contest these proposals, does not exist. The mining companies do their own environmental reports and the world’s best practice in industrial waste management does not exist in Australia,” she said.
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