Lead a community concern
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TRAIL CONFERENCE CANADA
July 1995
"LEAD"
The theme of the Conference was the Community. I feel there has been a steep learning curve for a lot of departments and people ie: EPA in America, scientists and health professionals as well as the community about the need for a much more consultative approach in dealing with particular problems, be it " Lead " or some other problem.
An area of concern for me that I brought up at the Conference was the need for earlier intervention in younger children 6 months on. I feel there is a bigger push needed on prevention rather than cure, that we don't accept present levels of concern.
To continue on from my comments on earlier intervention, it is important that we find out what the background level for lead in children is in Broken Hill so as to use this level as a guide to what is the action level for our children.
The Australian NHMRC guidelines are, as far as I am concerned, only to be accepted as a guideline and are by no means what communities should accept as the correct or anywhere near correct action.
In Trail for instance, they have an action level of above >10ug/dL for children under one year, rather than >15ug/dL as they have a background level of 10ug/dL in children under one year at this time, that seems an appropriate level to concentrate on.
But in other communities such as Butte, their average background level is about 3ug/dL. This is a definite case where waiting until the child's level reached >15ug/dL, as in our case, would be wrong and an unnecessary risk for those particular children at that site.
EVERY COMMUNITY IS DIFFERENT .6
The need for information at the beginning of any project is absolutely vital in understanding the problem and of course in deciding on appropriate actions that need to be taken.
What the level of action is in Broken Hill I don't know at this time.
ACTION LEVEL TO HIGH AT THE MOMENT .9
Very much dealing with the immediate obvious problem, that is children with high levels.
I would hope that if nothing else future efforts, in not only ours but also other communities, will be focused on total remediation of an area, not just short term quick fix solutions. I can see no reason to wait years to deal with a problem, when a lot of the solutions are achievable in the short term.
YEARS OF DEALING WITH HEALTH PROBLEMS NOT JUST LEAD .11
If we have learnt nothing else from years of work by many professional and community people in dealing with lead and other health problems, it doesn't go away. It is a continual ongoing problem that will reappear with apathy and time.
ONGOING MONITORING AND EDUCATION .12
ORGANISATIONS IN BROKEN HILL AND OTHER COMMUNITIES .14
There are many organisations in Broken Hill as there are in most communities, who wish to do more for the community, but often don't have the necessary information or knowledge.
Part of the Broken Hill Environmental Lead Centre's efforts should be to encourage just that sort of action to deal with the lead problem. It has to be a community effort.
THE NEED FOR RESOURCES AND INFORMATION .15
It will never come to a point where the Lead Problem in Broken Hill will go away.
The people who have been involved with the lead problem in Broken Hill, can be justly proud of the achievements to date of the Environmental Lead Centre. And all the people who have put in the time and effort, we have achieved what has taken others a lot longer to achieve, considering money and time constraints.
First I would like to thank the members of the Steering Committee & Working Group for their confidence in me in sending me to the Trail Conference.
Brief overview
I attended 6 workshop sessions, being asked to be the rapporteur at two of these. This was great as it gave me the chance to become very involved in those sessions from the floor so to speak, and of course being me, I also had plenty to say as we were not expected to be silent in these positions can you imagine?
SESSION'S I ATTENDED INCLUDED:
Community Process and Programs (Gaining Community Support)
Community Process and Program (Primary Prevention Programs)
Community Education (Making Use of the Media)
Community Education (Preschools and School Programs)
Community Education (Maternal and Infant Programs)
Community Process and Programs (Institutionalising Programs)
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