|
NSW Lead Task Force Working
Groups
By Elizabeth
O'Brien, Fred Salome and Dr. Chloë Mason
The LEAD Group has been lobbying for two years for
government action on lead and since June 1993 has been heavily involved
in the New South Wales Government Lead Task Force Working Groups.
The LEAD Group's nominees were accepted on to seven
of the original eight New South Wales Working Groups. A ninth Working
Group, to plan education strategies, is being formed.
Having no nominees on The Lead in Broken Hill
Working Group, The LEAD Group has scant information on its activities.
The rumour is that an expert from the United States advised shifting the
town five kilo metres as the only economically viable solution to
lowering blood lead levels. An expert from Port Pirie knocked this idea
on the head by pointing out the social problems which might arise. It
would not appear that experts from Port Pirie have all the answers,
however, as, in that town, $30 million has been spent over the last ten
years to reduce blood lead levels of children by only 20 %. By
comparison, over a ten year period in the United States, when lead was
being removed from petrol and welded cans largely replaced soldered food
cans, the average blood lead level fell by 75%.
The Lead in Petrol Working Group has been
under pressure to make recommendations on a short term strategy, which
have already been put to Cabinet. If the first of these is successful,
the lead content of petrol in NSW will have fallen by 25% by Jan 94.
This will be achieved at zero cost to the refiners by lowering the
octane rating of the fuel and thus the need for lead. Your lobbyist will
not rest until we have a final phase-out date for leaded petrol, as part
of a long term strategy.
The Lead in Paint Working Group is proposing
to recommend that lead paint removal be controlled by industry
self-regulation, standards and codes of practice rather than by
legislative controls. Education of home owners and renovators, domestic
painters and the industrial sector is a major priority. Disposal of
contaminated waste from lead removal projects is a further area of
concern and a number of options are being explored by the RTA and the
Water Board. The LEAD Group considers it a priority that the disposal
strategy also addresses the safe disposal of leaded waste from domestic
sources. It seems to me that it is also essential to provide a service
where lead levels in paint about to be stripped, or dust about to be
disturbed during renovation, can be ascertained, and appropriate advice
for safe removal can be given.
The Lead in Water and Waste Working Group is
preparing a document which looks at the level of risk from water and
waste water, available data on lead in water, further investigations
required and strategies for minimising the level of risk. In Western
Australia new regulations have been introduced limiting the lead content
of sewerage sludge for agricultural use. In NSW effluent is not
permitted to be used on plant crops for human consumption, though its
use is increasing on crops for animal fodder.
Other problems to be solved are how the sale of
lead solder should be controlled so that it is not used for plumbing in
that section of the water system under private control, and that parents
of children with high blood lead levels should have a water testing
service available to them and possibly assistance, on a means test
basis, for plumbing alterations to reduce lead.
The Lead in Air Working Group has created a
list of over one hundred sources of lead in air and concentrated on
those emitting more than one tonne per annum. This includes lead from
motor vehicle exhausts, lead emitted during recycling of old cars and
sump oil, lead from smelters and certain industries and from the burning
of wood and coal. The current National Health and Medical Research
Council (NHMRC) guidelines on lead in air, were created for a blood lead
target of 30 µg/dL and therefore, in my view, must be lowered, in line
with the new blood lead target of 10 µg/dL. The Boolaroo community
representative is keen to see the new NHMRC guidelines utilise the
world's best practice of measuring lead in air (ie. daily monitoring,
rather than every six days) and other working group members suggest that
NSW will require a legislative framework to ensure compliance with the
guidelines.
At the last Lead in Soil and Dust Working Group
meeting our community representative asked that the Working Group seek
the opinion of the Crown Solicitor about the Australian & New
Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC) discussion paper
of June 1993 called 'Financial Liability for Contaminated Site
Remediation'. For a copy phone CEPA Legal and Economic Section (06) 274
1078. The community representatives will be pushing for no further delay
in phasing-out lead in petrol, because while lead in petrol is
continually being added to the lead in soil and dust, action to abate
such soil and dust can only be limited and temporary.
The Lead in Food Working Group saw strong
lobbying from canning industries and fertiliser manufacturers who claim
their products do not add significant quantities of lead to food. A West
Australian study found significant lead contamination only in imported
food cans with acidic contents (e.g. beetroot, pineapple). The
unanswered questions at the meeting were what are the sources of lead in
those seven foods which contribute the major portion of lead in the
standard diet of a child, i.e., in whole meal bread, brown rice, ham
(not canned), cornflakes, lamb's liver, canned pineapple and dark
chocolate.
The Lead in Children's Blood Working Group
chaired by the NSW Health Department has made good progress. It has come
up with a set of education strategies for all groups in the community
who will need to be involved if children's blood lead levels are to be
lowered. It is imperative that these strategies feed into the National
Lead Education Campaign, which will be well under way by February 1994.
Obviously, a successful education campaign will
involve many people seeking further information and services, which
would best be provided at Lead Centres in Sydney, Broken Hill and
Wollongong. (Boolaroo already has an Environmental Health Centre.)
An information base essential to these Centres is
already in existence at our Community Lead Information Centre in Sydney,
where all work is done on a voluntary basis. The collective expertise of
The LEAD Group's Technical Advisory Board, also voluntary, is
unsurpassed. In view of this, and the fact that a National Lead
Education Campaign would vastly increase the enquiries and the need for
assistance, the simple solution would be for the government to
appropriately house, extend and fund our current operation.
|
