If any of the laboratory work on this contamination was done by ‘Analytical Services Tasmania’ of Newtown, I would treat the results with extreme skepticism. This lab is not independent of the state Labor government.

It could easily be another case of Labor sacrificing victims to what they delude themselves as a greater good. Enriching the foreign shareholders of some multinational corporation. This is where Labor has lost the plot. The individual worker doesn’t matter anymore to Labor but only shareholders and union bosses.

The response of our elected politicians typifies the responses of those who support the service deliverer rather than those paying for the service. There appear 2 critical areas of question:

Evidence of problem

Is there any evidence of heavy metal poisoning in the population of the area, and if so what is that evidence?

Evidence of responsibility

Given the evidence, what responsibility does the government take for:

a) finding and removing the causes of the problem, and
b) helping those affected?

So far, it seems that the affected parties somehow are involved in detailed medical and scientific aspects of the situation without there existing answers to the two straightforward questions of need and responsibility.

Agreed. Instead of seeing this as an opportunity to unpack and rectify   - and in doing so increase a sense of community satisfaction - it would seem the fencing contractors are being brought in - and not the ‘Jims Fencing’ kind - but those who used razor wire for Amanda Vanstones happy holiday camps.

When questions are asked of the major parties in Tasmania - all of a sudden everybody in there gets terribly busy….

Good luck, Roseberry.  You’d best forget about Roscoe and the Ombudsman, however. They seem to function mainly as shredders for complaints. You might try one of the terrorist organisations, who have a similar concern for public safety, but probably don’t have the same dependence on the bodies you are complaining about.

John Hayward

Where were the Green politicians? Have they actively done anything to help these people? If not, why not? Indeed, where are politicians of any persusion? We would have attended the Rally if we did not live at the other end of the State.

As an ex analytical chemist I suggest the following…these kits might help you get some control over your situation and scare up some action if you can prove your case a little better.

HEAVY METALS TEST KITS
aluminium, arsenic, cadmium, chlorine, chrome, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, manganese, MERCURY, molybdenum, silver, tin
Osumex’s Heavy Metals Test kits test the presence of heavy metals ions to a high degree of accuracy (in parts per billion {ppb} and million {ppm} in the body and of a wide range of materials in the environment…

The Osumex Heavy Metals Test kits can detect heavy metals contamination especially inorganic heavy metals to ppb or ppm. It is an easy to use at home kit and gives result in minutes that is easy to read. The level of heavy metals present is measured by comparing to a colour chart.

http://www.heavymetalstest.com/

Since when were aluminium, arsenic and chlorine “heavy metals”. Mike, if you were properly educated in chemistry you would know that the term “heavy metals” is nonsense. Have a look at IUPAC website!
The bloggers to this story who are clearly oblivious to the facts are simply fuelling the anxiety of these “residents” who have been very liberal with the truth, who will never accept facts that don’t suit their hidden agenda of getting us, the taxpayer, to pay for their mistakes of moving to a town in which they have now decided they don’t wont to live.
Don’t confuse this so-called issue with the forestry debates because ultimately, as the Green pollies apparently realise, those supporting these mistaken “residents”, who are clearly defaming various professionals, will ultimately have egg all over their faces!

What evidence do you have for your nasty little comments about these Rosebery residents who believe they are being poisoned and abandonned, David? (#7)
You are defaming these people and you probably want to be careful.

As for the “heavy metal” question - I’ll leave Mike Bolan to reply to that one himself, not being an ex-analytical chemist myself, although I’m pretty sure that aluminium is classed as one. Once again, be careful about what you accuse people of….............Mike’s advice, I thought, was pretty sound - and very typical of what Tasmanians are increasingly forced to do in the face of abandonnment by officialdom - find out for yourselves. Then good luck with getting anyone in Hobart to give a flying f**k.

(#7) “Heavy metals” might be a rather inexact definition, but it is one that ordinary people have no difficulty understanding.
Arsenic and aluminium are commonly on the list of 35 known metals (of which 23 are ‘heavy metals’) which can cause health problems. Although aluminium is often classed as a heavy metal, stricly speaking it is not, having a specific gravity of less than 5.

#4. John, I note that your comment above seems also appropriate to the TT thread @ http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php/weblog/comments/ombudsman-caught-in-logjam/

I have posted my observation in that thread alerting readers to your comment herein.

#7. What these folks appear to need is help in understanding their situation and some kind of useful direction to progress their case. I hope to potentially give them some helpful pointers so they might get a bit more control over their situation.

As you might have guessed, I didn’t choose the name for the test kits, but if you find the descriptions unhelpful you can contact the people selling the kits via that web address.

There appear to be a couple of major types of kit in that particular offer (there are others available from other sources of course).

There’s a general testing kit (the one called HMT) that tests to see if there’s any evidence of toxic metal compounds at all. These are pretty cheap in the $15 range, at least from that source.

If there is evidence of toxic metal compounds then there’s a suite of specific kits (also around $15-$20) to test for specific metals (Cadmium, Lead and so on)

The idea is to test generally to see if there’s evidence of toxic metal compounds and if there is, then to begin to isolate which ones with the specific kits.

If one can assemble that evidence then it becomes easier to track the toxic compounds back towards their source.

Hope that’s of some help.

A Bill of Rights for Future Generations

We, the people of the future, like the twenty thousand generations who came before us, have the right to breathe air that smells sweet, to drink water that runs pure and free, to swim in waters that teem with life, and to grow our food in rich, living earth.

We have the right to inherit a world unsullied by toxic chemicals, nuclear waste, or genetic pollution. We have the right to walk in untamed nature and to feel the awe that comes when we suddenly lock eyes with a wild animal.

We beseech you, the people of today: Do not leave your dirty messes for us to clean up; do not take technological risks, however small, that may backfire catastrophically in times to come. Just as we respectfully ask that you not burden us with your deferred debts and depleted pension plans, we also claim our right to a share of the planet’s ecological wealth. Please don’t use it all up.

We, in turn, promise to do the same. We grant these same rights and privileges to the generations who will live after us; we do so in the sacred hope that the human spirit will live forever.

A curse on any generation who ignores this plea.

<a>http://www.petitiononline.com/ABORFFG/petition.html</a>

Thank you for all who have commented intelligently on our plight in Rosebery. We have all been tested by Government laborotories and all tests were ordered by G.P.s. All of us have been confirmed heavy metal poisoned beyond the outside reference range for many heavy metals. This to our dissenters: We are not bloggers and this is the first online comment I have EVER made as I had to learn computer literacy in a hurry. We DID NOT get sick of the town, rather the town made us very sick. We do not expect anything except for help as we are becoming more affected each day.
Please try to imagine what it is like to know what is happening to you and your own Health Department actively works to keep you here to further their own agendas.
To our friends who have helped us recently: Thank you so much for helping us when we need it most. The isolation was terrifying. You know who you are.

Kays - Keep us posted. You have more friends than you think. Many of us have wised up to how our government and its agencies really operate and we do not like what we see. We have been at the receiving end of similar situations to yours.

Kay, please stop trying to scam my and other taxpayer’s money.  It’s over.  Science proved you were misguided in your apparent beliefs and assumptions.

ps: it’s not hard to get the anti-science pulp-mill haters on TT to pat your head and make coo-ing sounds. Bolan for example, a TT pulp-mill hater guru, cannot tell a heavy metal from those that aren’t.  Remember, it’s the others who really count and you haven’t convinced us.

The government is responsible for assuring the protection of the health of its people.

As a consequence I am authorising a full and complete study, along with a report on protective and/or detoxifying measures, to assure that the people of Rosebery are fully protected from any health threats.

#13. Testing water and other potential sources of contamination might yield useful information too.

Going by the TV reports, the water does appear to be a likely source, in which case food grown in the region may also be contaminated - along with nearly everything else.

If you have people with symptoms of HM poisoning, perhaps a pointed pictorial approach to the PM asking about Labor’s commitment to protecting the health of ‘working families’ etc might generate some response.

To our very angry dissenters: why are you defaming us? You should have no vested interest so what is up? I will explain if I can.  WE HAVE THE BIOLOGICAL PROOF OF 7 PEOPLE BEING POISONED, FOR INSTANCE I AM POISONED WITH CADMIUM, ARSENIC AND COPPER. The Government OF COURSE tested our properties using the E.P.A. and utilised Analytical Services AS DID WE. The mine also had independant testing done with accredited facilities and this is WHY there was an investigation to start with. OK? 1. We have biolgical Government laborotories results and most are multi poisoned. 2. ALL TESTS showed extreme levels of soil and water pollution. If you have proof we are scammers I urge you to contact the FEDERAL POLICE at once or stop saying such defamatory things about us.

Excuse me, PBurger. I think Mike Bolan was only suggesting that the Rosebery residents with a grievance, which they believe was not properly addressed, get some further testing done to see whether they do, in fact, have a case. You need to re-read his post (but take off the splenetic glasses first).

There are many thousands of people in this state who have very good reasons to take any utterances and assurances from this government with a very large grain of salt. If you think everything is hunky-dory in the Apple Isle, then I feel sorry for you.

#18, Kay, if possible, don’t let #15 P Burger and any other less helpful commentators get to you.

You and the other affected people know the facts, and have the evidence.

You will note that #15 has not produced any facts to disprove your claims. Just huff and puff. Unfortunately there are from time to time a few of these who appear on TT.

I challenge P Burger to convince the TT Readers that the facts as Kay S presents are disinformation and misinformation. Those facts are: -
“1. We have biolgical Government laborotories results and most are multi poisoned.
2. ALL TESTS showed extreme levels of soil and water pollution.”

Now, poster #15, we keenly await your reply, or will you do as other spoilers do, and go to cover?

#15. The description of the kit and its contents is cut and pasted from the company selling the Heavy Metal Test Kit. If you disagree with their description, I suggest you contact them instead of wasting your energy on me.

I am not anti-pulp mill. I am opposed to planning processes that leave out socio-economic costs, and ignore local business and community needs. I also oppose millions of my dollars going to large companies instead of being invested in health and education. I oppose any proposal that ignores costs to the community and requires hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in subsidies.

I will stand up for taxpayers’ to have an opinion on how their tax dollars are deployed, particularly when vital services like health are collapsing through lack of funds.