REGARDING the article ‘‘Blood testing possible stalling tactics’’ (Herald 27/11): How dare these politicians and government regulators again call for yet more blood from infant children?
I believe this is a stalling tactic to delay tackling the real issue and get on with auditing of the lead-abatement process.
These calls are designed to look like our politicians and regulators are doing something and makes a good living for those professionals involved.
The last thing this community needs is another round of terrifying these infant children by extracting their blood to determine the success or failure of yet another lead-remediation strategy.
This community has been down that long road many times before in the 1990s and, after years of the ordeal, ample documented evidence exists of the effects lead in soil has on children.
The bottom line is we need to remove the lead risk. It is unethical to continue to use our children as pollution monitors.
Concerned parents/carers should have immediate free access for their children providing confidential paediatric services.
Land contamination previously had a safety net with a planning law requiring Pasminco to remove lead from surrounding homes if levels climbed above 600 parts per million.
This was secretly surrendered by the government in a deal with Pasminco administrators without the community’s knowledge.
Now the politicians and professionals and regulators again wish to delay action and call for more blood from the children. A further tactical delay.
Jim Sullivan, Boolaroo Action Group
