Two months ago when this journal was supposed to be published, we had a dearth of articles and a battle on our hands.

Now there are too many articles and not enough of the letters from readers and tips and facts I would have liked to have included, but at least we won part of the battle with the NHMRC. (See the results in "News", "NHMRC Deliberations" and "Objectives of The LEAD Group - An update".)

The other articles in this issue are a real credit to the network of environmentalists and LEAD Group members who volunteer their time to work tirelessly together in order to achieve our goal - the control of lead in all its uses.

Now we're embroiled with the time-consuming community consultation process with the NSW EPA in the chair of the Lead Taskforce. The Environment Minister having decided that community representatives don't deserve a sitting fee, we have to constantly ask ourselves, how will our time be most effectively and efficiently spent? Will our attendance at the eight Working Groups on lead be used to condone the decisions made between industry and government representatives there? Or will we actually be consulted?

Find out in the next exciting episode of LEAD Action News; along with contributions from you our readers, reports on the activities of local governments, state and territory governments, the roundtable meeting with Ros Kelly, the conclusions of all of our meetings with petrol companies, latest advice for parents of lead-poisoned children and lots more!

If someone can arrange for the donation of a laser printer, and a volunteer editor the next issue might even be on time. I am, as always, eternally optimistic. Your editor.