Public Health And Mining
Newcastle Herald
Monday May 19, 2008
THE Hunter Minewatch group demonstrates a commendable degree of optimism when it suggests the NSW Government might put the brakes on coal projects in the region while it studies the health effects of the industry. With a coal royalty system linked to the price of the product, the Government is enjoying a substantial windfall from the export-driven mining boom.
Cynics and realists alike might suggest that, with several hundred million dollars heading its way via the golden coal loaders this financial year, the Government will hardly want to rock the boat far less the bulk carrier.But tests on the drinking water of some residents who live near coalmines have put a new question mark over mining and health. These tests suggest that the water in some rainwater tanks may contain unsafe levels of heavy metals. The cause is unknown, but the Government surely has an obligation to investigate whether it is connected to mining.Coalmining liberates tens of thousands of tonnes of fine dust from the soil and deposits it on the landscape. The Herald has already repeatedly reported these extraordinarily high levels of pollution, derived from figures the mines themselves supply to the government-funded National Pollutant Inventory. In terms of dust pollution, the Upper Hunter must be among the worst-affected regions in Australia. And the figures reported cover only those particles measuring 10 micrometers in diameter or less. These so-called PM10s are documented in the international literature of public health to be especially dangerous, since they appear to be able to enter the lung's narrowest passageways and cause or exacerbate a range of illnesses.The airborne dust also contains the range of elements normally found in the earth's crust and these benign and toxic alike precipitate to a greater or lesser extent on people, houses and land. It has been suggested that this may account for the apparently high levels of lead in the water tanks of residents of the mine-surrounded village of Camberwell.Repeated calls for a full office of the Environment Protection Authority in the Upper Hunter have been ignored by the Government, as have similar calls for a thorough survey of the population health effects of fine dust from coalmines. The prospect that some Hunter residents may be exposed to unsafe drinking water is one that must not be ignored. Knights-Wests dealFANS of the Newcastle Knights will be relieved that their team has come, at last, to a workable arrangement with Western Suburbs Leagues Club. The original agreement between the two organisations came perilously close to collapse due to chronic confusion about respective roles and obligations. That confusion is now gone. The Knights are clearly in charge of their own finances and Wests is a major sponsor and stadium manager. It is good to see a source of aggravation removed. Fans will be hoping the Knights can now focus on their campaign for more success on the field.
© 2008 Newcastle Herald
