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The republication of LEAD Action News marks a new phase in the
global campaign against lead contamination.
Elizabeth O’Brien, the United Nations award-winning President
of The LEAD Group, stressed that the newsletter would highlight the
fact ‘that removing lead from motor vehicle petrol is only the first
step in a global strategy to rid the earth of the great menace of lead
poisoning.’
She said that ‘Too many people believe the war was won when we
removed lead from petrol in Australia.
This is just not the case.
The newsletter highlights the continued contamination by lead
of houses and whole towns like Esperance in Western Australia.
It explores the pernicious export of lead, wait for it, from
AUSTRALIA, to make the additive for road-use leaded petrol for sale in
16 countries in Europe and the developing world.’
Ms O’Brien reports on her recent UN meeting in Beijing, on the
global phase-out of leaded petrol for motor vehicles.
Elizabeth O’Brien said that it was not all bad news, with places
like the American state of Rhode Island introducing innovative
measures to combat lead poisoning from lead paint in rental homes.
Continuing the series of our web-published history of lead
poisoning in previous newsletters, is the story of the Spanish painter
Goya poisoned by his lead paints.
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Ms O’Brien also said that ‘Lead poisoning is
a scourge, like polio or malaria, which we must eradicate from
the earth and which we can do with the combined wills of the
lead industry and world governments.
But it is up to the wealthier countries to lead the way and I
call on the governments of Australia and the United Kingdom to
act now on this issue. The
newsletter reminds their Prime Ministers that a quarter of a
billion people could be spared exposure to lead in petrol, by a
stroke of the legislative pen. |
“The global end of leaded petrol is in our
sights”
Cartoon by Adrian Hill
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President O’Brien wishes to thank the Australian Commonwealth
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts * for
contributing funding for the Global Lead Advice and Support Service
Programme.
Contact: Elizabeth O’Brien, The LEAD Group - +61 2 9716 0132,
mobile +61 431 184 933
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See: LEAD Action
News Vol 9 No 1
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