Landline: Mineral Sands Mining Threatens Victorian Farms

Bega Valley Lead Safe Circular Economy Proposal

Email from Elizabeth O’Brien, The LEAD Group Inc, to the man featured in Landline -

Bega's bid to become a circular economy to reduce waste, broadcast on Landline

on 29 July 2024, ABC TV Australia, viewable on ABC iView online if you subscribe, or at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MbjjIuy1wQ – or read the transcript and

screenshots above.

To: Barry Irvin, Executive Chairman, Bega Group; Chairman of Bega Cheese Limited since

2000; and Chairman of Giant Steps, an organisation providing services to children and

young adults with autism since 2002

Sent: Tuesday, 17 September 2024

Subject: Attn Barry Irvin - can we please collaborate on a Bega Valley lead safe circular

economy?

Dear Barry,

I was blown-away impressed with you when I saw the Landline episode in July 2024 but

having also found out from the Bega Group website today that the Peanut Company of

Australia in my hometown of Kingaroy is part of the Bega Group, and that you’ve been the

Chairman of Giant Steps helping children and young adults with autism (a condition that

can be caused by lead poisoning and can also cause, thru pica, lead exposure) since 2002,

has cemented my belief that we were meant to work together to achieve a lead-safe circular

economy in the Bega Valley.

2023 Volcano

Art Prize (VAP) Entry. Photographer: Claire Leight. Photo description: Elizabeth O’Brien AKA Grandma

Lead, in front of the peanut silos in Kingaroy, wearing her “Just a Kid from Kingaroy t-shirt. Lead-Safety

Message: Not Just a Kid from Kingaroy - A Force to be Reckoned With. URL:

https://volcanoartprize.com/portfolio-item/not-just-a-kid-from-kingaroy/

Half my life - the past 34 years - has revolved around lead poisoning and lead

contamination prevention and management following the discovery that my three sons

were lead poisoned just by living in an old house in inner western Sydney, so I joined with

other parents to set up The Lead Education and Abatement Design (LEAD) Group Inc

charity. The LEAD Group Inc has helped tens of thousands of parents (including hundreds

of parents of children and young adults with both autism and lead poisoning), renovators,

the aging population, organisations, governments and the World Health Organisation

(WHO) and United Nations (UN) with the knowledge they needed to take action towards

lead-safety. I have for instance, advised Giant Steps staff on which vacuum cleaner to buy

for Giant Steps and how to use a LEAD Group Kit to test the school soil for lead at a

National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA)-accredited lab.

When I watched you on Landline, I immediately thought that your Bega Valley Circular

Economy will only truly be a circular economy if lead is part of the circularity and of how

my vision would fit so perfectly into that. I expressed my vision for a circular economy for

lead in The LEAD Group’s October 2023 submission to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry

into Gold, Silver, Lead and Zinc Mining – see

https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lcdocs/submissions/82416/0184%20Lead%20Educa

tion%20and%20Abatement%20Design%20(LEAD)%20Group%20Incorporated.pdf. The

submission envisions that instead of destroying agricultural areas and Aboriginal sites and

requiring too much water and fossil fuels by opening new lead mines, the NSW

government should incentivise the replacement of all toxic lead products with non-toxic

alternatives, and the collection and recycling of all leaded wastes and toxic lead products,

followed by the manufacture of 100% recyclable lead acid batteries made from the 100%

recycled lead.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Bega Valley could be the first region in the world to firstly

do a lead audit… find out how many:

- people are drinking too much lead from new brass taps or from lead flashing on

roofs used for rainwater collection,

2021 Volcano Art Prize (VAP)

Entry. Photographer: Jason

Fargie. Title: Beware Lead

Flashing on Your Roof Lead-

Safety Message: Replace lead

flashing with non-lead

flashing like Wakaflex, in

order to reduce lead in

rainwater and

stormwater. URL:

https://volcanoartprize.com/portfolio-item/beware-lead-flashing-on-your-roof/

- shooters are lead poisoned from lead styphnate primer and leaded ammunition,

- children and renovators are being lead poisoned by exposure to leaded dust, soil

and sediment contaminated due to degradation or mismanagement of pre-1997 paint, the

dust from leadlighting and from building cavities (released gradually into the living space

or suddenly during ceiling-damaging storms or demolition), or from bushfires and floods

- older people have elevated blood lead levels today from their earlier-in-life lead

exposure thus putting them at risk of early death from heart attack, stroke, osteoporosis,

dementia and other causes

- cows are lead poisoned due to their inclination to lick and eat lead painted items

and discarded lead acid batteries

- backyard eggs have too much lead in them due to leaded soil, water (from tank or

tap or PVC hose or galvanised water bowl lead) and/or commercial chicken feed

2024 Volcano Art Prize (VAP) Entry. Title: Chicken Feed Lead Lead-Safety Message: Tell the humans there is

lead in some commercial chicken feed that can get in to our eggs along with the soil lead from our backyard

chicken run!

- waste streams contain excess lead which could negatively impact the re-use of

wastes such as seashells

- re-use materials such as painted wood or bricks in the marketplace are lead painted

Then to use the results of the audit to create a Bega Valley Lead Safe Circularity Plan

including:

to replace:

- leaded taps with stainless steel taps

- lead flashing with non-toxic non-lead flashing

- lead ammunition/primers with non-lead ammunition

- lead roofing with non-lead roofing

- leaded paint in priority child-risk settings with non-leaded paint

to cover over or make inaccessible to children any existing leadlighting that is desired to be

kept but to require that the lead cames are child-inaccessible in new leadlighting or require

non-leaded coloured glass art such as DesignLam - non-lead / lead-replacement stained

glass, in new projects

to remediate:

- re-use painted wood or bricks by lead-safely stripping the lead paint

- lead contaminated soil in children’s play areas and chicken runs

- leaded building cavity dust by having a member of the Australian Dust Removalists

Association (ADRA) vacuum it especially prior to the installation of insulation or prior to

demolition

- degraded lead paint in childcare facilities and schools

to collect and recycle, in the most water- and fuel-efficient way:

- the leaded products above

- all leaded wastes including sediments

- used lead acid batteries

- lead x-ray vests and x-ray room shielding

2024 Volcano Art Prize (VAP) Entry. Artist:

Nicholas Jeffrey, Age: 11, School Name:

Creative Einstein. Title: Moon dolphin

porpoising Lead Safety Message: Don’t let

spilled lead pellets from a dive weight

belt or lead sinkers weigh down our

dolphins. Use only stainless steel diving

weights and non-lead fishing sinkers.

URL: https://volcanoartprize.com/portfolio-

item/moon-dolphin-porpoising/

and finally, to create new 100% recyclable lead acid batteries from 100% recycled lead.

I hope that you can see the potential for your vision to incorporate my vision to protect

everyone and the environment from lead, the most common industrial contaminant, and

thus to create a smarter longer-lived population that has a chance of averting climate

crisis.

You are also invited to read my detailed Model National Lead Safety Policy illustrated by

2023 Volcano Art Prize Entries, in LEAD Action News vol 21 no 4 (LANv21n4) - Model

National Lead Safety Policy and 2023 Volcano Art Prize - pp3-88/articles 2-11, at

https://leadsafeworld.com/wp-

content/uploads/2023/12/LANv21n4_Model_National_Lead_Safety_Policy_and_2023_

VAP.pdf.

2024 Volcano Art Prize (VAP) Entry. Title: Stop Doing the Damaging Stuff. Lead-safety Message: As I wrote

in our Model National Lead Safety Policy (2023): David Attenborough says, “The plan is obvious: stop doing

the damaging stuff”. So let’s stop burning fossil fuels, especially leaded fuels like AvGas, and stop lead

poisoning our kids because we need smarter, wiser minds to avert a climate crisis. Description of Work:

iPhone 13 photo of A Life on Our Planet marked up where lead-safety and climate-safety interact, and

collaged with screenshots collaged by Lucinda Curran and Elizabeth O’Brien from video A Reason for Hope

Attenborough 2019. URL: https://volcanoartprize.com/portfolio-item/stop-doing-the-damaging-stuff/

I look forward to receiving your response.

Kind regards

Elizabeth O’Brien, Lead Scientist and Lead Advisor, The LEAD Group Inc. charity