In a recent discussion with a Government official on the subject of poisoned residents in Rosebery I was told “They knew it was a mining town - what do they expect?” There has been a serious double standard applied to the quality of the investigation conducted into heavy metal contamination in Rosebery. A form of health exclusion in the midst of social exclusion.

If the Government had done a thorough investigation in Rosebery similar to those conducted in the ‘90s into heavy metal contamination of the Derwent, particularly Lutana and the Eastern Shore, then the community may have more reason to have confidence in their findings.

The recent research conducted by the Government and Nyrstar to review previous data on heavy metal contamination in Lutana and the Eastern Shore had the advantage of peer review by Prof M. McGloughlin from University of South Australia.

Will the Director of Health Dr Roscoe Taylor, and Director of the EPA Warren Jones, put their Final Report out to peer review?

When we get the answer to this question we might know why thallium and arsenic have been excluded from new conditions contained in the Environmental Protection Notice issued by the EPA to the Rosebery mine in August this year.

We might also know how it was that the Government’s ‘thorough’ investigation failed to find the source of the heavy metal contamination on only three selected properties in Rosebery which has been a mining town for over a century.

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