International meeting

The LEAD Group will be represented by Prof Geoffrey Duggin at an international scientific consensus conference in Brisbane in early February.

The meeting aims to determine what health effects occur at what blood lead levels. This will hopefully remove some question marks and add some detail to the chart on the previous page.

From the determinations of the conference, governments around the world will be able to set their own blood lead levels of concern for action, on the basis of what level of health effects they are prepared to tolerate.

Miners sacked

503 Broken Hill lead and zinc miners were sacked at the end of January when Pasminco's North mine was closed. The closure was due to the international slump in the mining industry.

Funding in Australia

The LEAD Group has successfully applied for a $500 grant from Burwood Municipal Council to ensure that lead poisoning education is carried out in the municipality in 1993 .

... and in the US
Our counterpart in the US, the Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, and the Enterprise Foundation were recently named the joint recipients of $US5.5 million to establish the National Center for Lead-Safe Housing. The grant is the largest ever by a philanthropic foundation to prevent childhood lead poisoning.