Letter to the Editor: Broken Hill community - data and advice needs

Letter to the Editor: Broken Hill community - data and advice needs

Dear Elizabeth

I have just read an article about Parks in Broken Hill - how contaminated they are. They are stating that underground mining is the cause of lead contamination of local parks. This is not the case. Surface mining started at CBH mining Lease 7 after Development consents were given in 2002. Surface mining has continued from 2002 until today (2017). This is why the lead levels are spiking again.

In 2008 Bill Balding of NSW Health was quoted in the Barrier Daily Truth (newspaper) as stating that it was parents being complacent that was causing the spike in children’s blood lead levels.

At the time of the surface mining there were no working Air monitors recording air lead levels. I have photos of the lease during these dates and millions of tonnes of skimps / tailings / mineralised ore have been extracted and put in rail trucks and shipped off overseas for re-processing.

All this material has been mounded and stockpiled on site for the past 100 years.

Photo: Broken Hill Line Of Lode, from Visit NSW website. http://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/outback-nsw/broken-hill-area/broken-hill/attractions/line-of-lode

At that time (100 years ago) they only took the lead and silver. The stockpiled waste material contains large amounts of Zinc and other metals that was left behind during mill processing. This mill waste also contains Hexavalent Chromium which they used in the milling process.

They used cyanide and arsenic as well so all of this toxic material is in the dust that they are belching all over the town since 2002 with no environmental licences in place.

It wasn’t until CBH was audited by NSW Department of Planning this year that the TEOM1 Air monitor was in operation and the surface toxic dumps where covered with a green dust suppressant.

In their audit they stated that surface mining grants had to be handed back. This was the second time that NSW Planning had asked for the licences to be handed back.

How would one go about getting a petition for the community to have independent air and soil / dust monitoring done?

Could this be done through a government grant so they can’t dispute the results?

As even now when they are getting a high result they discount it, stating that the monitor has been tampered with. This has been going on since the onset of the 1990 Lead Program.

We have been told that the $13million that was given this time was not for the children, it was to put up hazard signs in parks, etc.

I think the community should set up their own Lead and Heavy Metals Centre where parents can come and get real face-to-face info on the contamination their children are exposed to and discuss their health concerns.

As I feel the real health concerns from this toxic dust are being overlooked.

I have noticed the whole time I had my three children to doctors and paediatricians in Broken Hill, not once did they state my children had lead poisoning – they were just labelled “ADHD”.

Only when I was fed up and took them to Adelaide were they diagnosed with heavy metal poisoning and given treatment. That was the first time we knew the full extent of their toxic poisoning blood results. After their treatment they had to continue with oral DMSA which at the time was over $400 for one month supply so that was x3.

The Dr seen in Adelaide asked why didn’t the Dr in Broken Hill refer the children to a toxicologist?

Why isn’t there a toxicologist visiting Broken Hill if there are so many sick children?

Even the NSW Education Department keeps the effects of Lead in the children under wraps. I took my children to Adelaide and had a Leading child psychologist complete testing to see what learning levels they were at, as I had concerns we had employed teachers for private lessons and still they were not learning. We had one teacher came from Sydney and he had concerns at how far behind these children were and the children he was teaching in Broken Hill schools.

These children in the Broken Hill School system that suffer from Lead Poisoning are LABELLED as disruptive. There is no support for them, no understanding of how damaged their Brains are from the poisoning.

Most times the Education Department blames the parents stating low social economic status or single parents or dysfunctional parents.

When I have spoken to some parents I was told one female child had a Blood Lead Level of 60ug/dL and had an enema and was not referred for any medical treatment. The child got sicker. It was the parent taking her to a private dr for the enema. No treatment was given for Lead Poisoning.

My question is: how do parents keep their children safe from Lead Exposure when the very government departments set up to protect our children are not naming it as LEAD POISONING in the children of Broken Hill.

And if the children are poisoned so too are the parents with all the health concerns as well, depression, lethargy, hypertension, anxiety, dementia, aggression, the list goes on.

Don’t forget the air monitors are only tested for insoluble Lead not bio(soluble) content so if you imagine it as segmenting an orange - only 1 quarter of the lead in the sample is being recorded as “Total Lead”.

So therefore the community is being deceived with the results.

Where the tax payers millions of dollars are going it is not into protecting or helping the community of Broken Hill.

Jenny Rowbotham,
Broken Hill, NSW Australia
18 June 2017.