Worst Case Lead Poisoning and
Tasmanian Government Inaction (continued)
By Elizabeth
O'Brien, Manager, Lead Advisory Service Australia
Edited by Paul Spencer, activist and roving volunteer
The Oates’ Story
While
6% of children in Queenstown between the ages of 1-4 had blood lead levels above the
individual intervention level of 15 mg/dL, one child was more than double.
In
November 1996, the Oates family moved from a mining lease to the large 4 bedroom house in
Montgomery St, Gormanston. According to Denise Oates, the previous residents had had a
child who died at the age of 18 months, of cot death, while living at the house and their
daughter, born in 1986, had slow learning problems.
At
the time of moving to Gormanston, Denise and Nigel Oates had three young children: Raymond
aged 10, Adrian aged 2 years 8 months and Makayla aged 1 year 6 months. Tyler Oates was
born on the 7th February 1997.
Around
November 1996, it was determined that Makayla Oates had only one kidney working (as the
other had not developed when Makayla was born premature) and she was anaemic. She was
treated with Fergon (iron supplement).
The
family always used to eat the eggs from their chooks, but by the middle of 1997 all the
chooks that they had brought to the house when they moved in, had died, one at a time, of
unknown causes. The chooks had contact with the soil, as did a number of rabbits and 4
guinea pigs that all died of unknown causes within 6 months of moving to Gormanston.
Over
the coming three years, the family lost a huge number of pets to unexplained deaths,
including geese, guinea pigs, nearly all of 100 pigeons and a galah. The animals all had
contact with the soil, the aviary birds through being given grass pulled out by the roots.
According
to Denise Oates, Adrian and Makayla and her grandson Alex were blood lead tested in
December 1997 for a survey carried out by the Menzies Centre for Population Health
Research. She says that her son Tyler was said to be too young to be included in the
survey - he was 10 months old.
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