Why Does Qld Health Want to Have More Less Smart Children?

Sometimes you just have to be really annoyed!

The obfuscation coming from the Qld Government on the levels of lead in the blood of 1-4 years olds in Mount Isa is one of those situations.

Lead, in virtually any excess, causes a loss of potential mental ability in children. So why is it the Qld Government does not want to find out where the lead is coming from and how the children can be protected from it?

Can I suggest that this is just an obscenely uncaring and pathetic attitude that is to be totally and utterly condemned.

I bet if it were the children of the Qld Cabinet involved the inquiry and remedy would be virtually instantaneous. But some poor children of poor parents in Mt Isa compared with the continued mining and profits from Xstrata – no chance - profits win.

These kids are being given a lifelong sentence of not being ‘the sharpest tool in the shed’ because the Qld Government does not care. Obscene neglect is what I say!

Read more here:

Lead testing in Mount Isa rejected by Queensland Government

Michael McKenna | May 23, 2008

THE Queensland Government has refused to conduct extensive soil and water testing in Mount Isa despite its own study confirming that 11 per cent of children in the town have dangerously high levels of lead in their blood.

At the release of the final report of a blood-screening program of 400 children in the town, government ministers and officials said there was no need to conduct the tests and that the mine's owner, Swiss giant Xstrata, was already facing the repeal of decades-old laws granting it lower emissions standards than the rest of the state.

Instead, the Queensland Health report recommended that a "living with lead" alliance - made up of government, council and mine representatives - develop more "mitigation strategies" such as dust control and raising awareness of the problem.

The report released yesterday did not identify the cause of high levels of lead and other heavy metals discovered in children aged between one and four during the 14-month blood-screening program.

The screening program found that 45 of the 400 children had a blood lead level of 10 micrograms per decilitre. Australian and US studies have revealed that children with blood lead levels of over 10 micrograms per decilitre are at serious risk of learning and behavioural difficulties.

More here:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23744269-23289,00.html

My view is a pox on all their houses for such horrible negligence. I hope the law suits cost the Government a squillion. After all, you can’t ever get your potential back once your brain is damaged by lead. Even one damaged child in one too many.

Back to Health IT on Monday.

David.