[Greens-Media] MARK PARNELL MLC: Govt hides truth re Whyalla cancer rates

[Parnell]

Media Release
Wednesday 9th April, 2008

Govt hides truth re Whyalla cancer rates

	
Greens MLC Mark Parnell has asked a series of questions in Parliament
about why the Rann Government held back the public release of alarming
cancer data in Whyalla for at least 6 months, and possibly up to 12
months, and if the Government knew about the increased cancer risk at
the same time it was ramming special legislation through Parliament to
water down environmental standards in the town.

"The Government has failed the people of Whyalla.  Documents I have
obtained through Freedom of Information legislation detail delay after
delay in releasing this damming health report," Mr Parnell said.  

The Whyalla Health Impact Study was undertaken in response to widespread
community concerns about possible health effects of red dust from the
nearby steelworks.  The study found 95 cases of lung cancer in Whyalla
between 1999 and 2004, which was 32 (or 50%) more than the Health
Department anticipated based on studies of other regions in SA.  It also
found higher than expected hospital admission rates for asthma and
chronic lung diseases. 

"The public release of the Whyalla Health report was delayed at least a
year after it was finished, and six months after Cabinet signed off on
it, and it appears to have only seen the light of day following
complaints from the then head of the EPA, Dr Paul Vogel.  And even now,
four months after they announced tougher air pollution standards for
OneSteel, the Government has yet to formalise these standards through
Parliament as they are required by law to do," he said.

"Minister for Health John Hill sat on the report while the Government
and One Steel desperately tried to formulate a response.  In the
meantime, the people of Whyalla were kept in the dark about information
they had a right to know.  

"In Parliament and in the media, the Rann Government continues to spin
the line that the higher cancer, asthma and chronic lung disease rates
had little to do with the OneSteel plant.  If that is the case, then the
delay in releasing the information to the public, while negotiating with
the company in secret, is even more disgraceful.
 
"Either the health concerns are linked to red dust from One Steel or
they are not, and if they are not, then why did the Government spend six
months working on minimising corporate PR damage?

The Australian Medical Association has also questioned why the report
was delayed, with AMA state president Peter Ford quoted in the
Advertiser in March saying: 'The community does have a right to some
explanation as to the delay in the release of a report like that'.

"Early diagnosis of cancer is critical, and public knowledge of an
increased risk may have prompted Whyalla residents to check out health
concerns at an earlier time, said Mr Parnell.  

"The Government's primary responsibility is the health of its citizens
not the financial bottom line of big corporations.  The delay was a
disgrace, and totally unjustified," he said.

The FOI documents also records the then head of the SA Environment
Protection Authority (EPA) Dr Paul Vogel writing to Environment Minister
Gail Gago sometime before Nov 16 2007 expressing concerns about the
delay in the Report's release, and suggesting 'the material contained in
the report has been known for about 2 years'. Mr Parnell asked Minister
Gail Gago yesterday when exactly she knew about the alarming health
data.

In Oct/Nov 2005 (2 years before) the Broken Hill Proprietary Company's
Steel Works Indenture (Environmental Authorisation) Amendment Bill was
debated and passed in State Parliament.  The effect of this Bill was to
tear up the EPA's standards and to block legal action initiated by the
Whyalla Red Dust Action Group.

Before entering State Parliament, Mark Parnell was the lawyer for the
Whyalla Red Dust Action Group.  Health concerns arising from OneSteel
red dust pollution were central to the Group's court action.

"If what Dr Vogel says is true, then the Government was potentially
aware of explosive health data in Whyalla at around the same time it was
ramming through special legislation to water down environmental
standards in the town," he said.

"The Government needs to come clean about exactly when it knew of the
increased cancer rates, and it needs to reassure the people of Whyalla
that this information was not available in November 2005 when it used
special legislation to block residents' Court action and overturn the
EPA's pollution standards.

"If the Government did know, and still went ahead with their special
Bill, then that is nothing short of a scandal," Mr Parnell said.

 

	
For further comment contact Craig Wilkins on 0434 007 893

	
 


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