Preventative Strategies of The LEAD Group:

fact sheet created 11 October 2006

Legislation and policy development

Treatment

Education

Grass roots community actions

The LEAD Group has:

• Contributed to primary prevention through reduced use of lead in Australian petrol. Leaded petrol was phased-out by January 2002.
• Successfully lobbied the NHMRC for a change in the Australian blood lead "standard" to
  <10 µg/dL in 1993.
• Consulted with the NHMRC in workshops to design a national strategy on lead abatement ("Reducing Lead Exposure in Australia", July 1993). 
• Contributed to an OECD lead monograph and the development of an OECD Lead Control Act and OECD Ministerial Agreement on lead risk reduction in 1996.
• At meetings of the Commission on Sustainable Development at the UN in New York in 1994 & 1995 successfully lobbied delegates for an international agreement on the phase-out of lead in petrol and other consumer products. 
• Submitted a report to NICNAS to help the ban of lead in surface coating and inks as wells as cosmetics soon.

§   We are looking for people to write tertiary prevention fact sheets on emerging detox treatments for lead and individual responses to lead

§   Our egroups provide a mode of interaction for people to discuss certain aspects of lead poisoning

Some of the groups are:

§   Leaded Kids – discuss lead poisoning in children.

§   Autism and Lead Poisoning – discuss the potential correlation between lead poisoning and autism.

§   Lead Workers – provides information for people who are exposed to high lead levels in occupational settings.

§   Lead Poisoned Adults – discuss the danger of lead poisoning in adults.

§   Run GLASS (Global Lead Advice and Support Service)

§   Our website acts as a tool for campaigning to increase the awareness of the adverse effect of lead poisoning and strategies for primary and secondary prevention

§  Our website has had ⅓ of a million visitors from 176 countries

§  We have disseminated nearly ľ of a million copies of lead fact sheets and other articles directly to susceptible individuals via our information services, talks & expos

§   We lobbied for education programs & certifying for lead paint removalists and ceiling dust removalists.

§   We are currently involved in educating medical professionals as to lead’s role in leading causes of death in Australia

The LEAD Group has:

§   Lobbied for blood lead testing of 1-4 year-old in Summer Hill

§   set up a technical advisory board of Australia’s most qualified lead poisoning prevention specialists

§   provided information on lead for politicians directly and indirectly through enquirers

§   grown the world’s largest publicly accessible library on lead

§   generated 380 media hits (TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, community fact sheets, web-published submissions to government) to raise awareness of lead poisoning