Activities Undertaken to Inform SA & NSW Residents of GLASS Services

GLASS re-contacted the National Poisons Information Centre in Sydney to remind them that callers from anywhere in Australia who inquire about lead poisoning could be referred to the Global Lead Advice and Support Service. GLASS was listed in the hard copy of the Adelaide White Pages this year following on from last year’s LASA entry and GLASS was listed in the Sydney White and Yellow pages as usual, although anyone with web access has been able to find the White Pages and Yellow Pages on-line LEAD Group entries for some years.

GLASS is constantly approached by journalists and writers for information and in return we request a link to our website which often results in calls (email or phone) to GLASS or a mention of the GLASS and/or our website. This year saw a lot more web advertising for volunteers with responses coming from NSW, South Australia, Victoria and overseas. The following ways of finding out about GLASS were reported by our callers for the first time this year:

Media Event

Courier Mail article on lead paint, 25/5/05 or 26/5/05

Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology and Surveillance (ABLES) listserv/egroup run by US CDC

Volunteer Search ad for Publicist/Networker at www.jobsearch.gov.au

AGDF website

Volunteer Search ad for The LEAD Group on screen @ CENTRELINK

LeadWorkers e-group at http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/LeadWorkers

Information sheet with Peel Away product information

"Dreaded Lead" article by Dr Ginni Mansberg in Medical Observer 11 Feb 2005 - GLASS ph no 1800

GoVolunteer ad on Seek.com (Volunteering Australia) for Access/SQL expert

GoVolunteer ad on Seek.com (Volunteering Australia) for Network Administrator

THE BRAIN-GUT CONNECTION WORKSHOP - PAN info 20041024 FACTSHEET

"Lead incurs a terrible toll" by Tim Escott for ILPAW in Inner West Weekly 21/10/04

GoVolunteer ad on Seek.com (Volunteering Australia) for Office Manager

Lodged Lead Shot and Bullets Support (LLSBS) Group e-group on Yahoo website

GoVolunteer ad on Seek.com (Volunteering Australia) for Event Organiser for ILPAW/ILPAD

GoVolunteer ad on Seek.com (Volunteering Australia) for Fund-raiser for GLASS

Lead Safety Folder from Leichhardt Council

Dr Ben Balzer's postings on Nut-net egroup for dietitions/nutritionists run by Nutrition Australia

Australian Dust Removalists Association (ADRA) listing in Sydney White Pages

James Hardy asbestos story on 60 Minutes, 7:30pm Sunday Ch 9

GoVolunteer ad on Seek.com (Volunteering Australia) for GLASS Email data-entry officer etc

SMH article about recall of 150 million items of children's lead jewellery in USA

Ad for volunteers for the LEAD Group appearing regularly in the "Inner West Weekly"

LEAD Gp media release: Smoking - a pain in the butt!

"Visionary led the way" article re: EOB in Inner West Weekly 10/6/04

DA CONDITIONS by Canterbury City Council

LEAD Gp ad on Volunteering Australia website - www.govolunteer.com.au; www.volunteer.com.au

LEAD Gp media release: Elizabeth O'Brien wins UNAA WED Award for outstanding service to the environment

Profile on Elizabeth O'Brien at www.unaavictoria.com.au/events/world_awards_winners.php

LEAD Gp media release: Elizabeth O'Brien recognised for outstanding service in lead poisoning prevn

"Making Lead-Smart Contractors" on LEAD Group website

Nothing Without Belinda Choir, Sydney, Australia

Word-of-Mouth Contact

Heart Foundation - South Australian Division

Brisbane City Council said to call Environment Australia (Dept of Envt & Heritage) who said to call GLASS

Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales (UNSW)

Vic Poisons Info said to call Environment Australia (Dept of Envt & Heritage) who said to call

Penrith City Council

P.L.A.Y.Care

Hunter Public Health Unit (PHU)

NSW Poisons Info said to call NSW Pollution Line who said to cal

ACA (Choice Magazine) said to call NSW EPA (Dept of Envt & Conservation) who said to call GLASS

Leichhardt General Practice, Inner West of Sydney

Environmental Analysis Laboratory, Southern Cross Uni, NSW

Skills, Training & Resource Service (STARS), Lakemba, NSW

Claire Porter, Journalist, Informed Choice magazine

Beethoven Society Choir of Australia, Sydney

Please see Appendix 12 for some examples of feedback the organization received from various callers this year.

A total of 35,899 lead information products were distributed this FY from which 6,639 were written by the NSW Government. This is an enormous increase of spreading out material compared to the last FY when only a total of 5,019 lead publications published by the NSW Government were distributed. Please see Appendix 13 for further detailed information.

All incoming information is questioned as to the credibility of its source and as far as possible, is investigated by seeking the references cited.

If the reference cited for a particular piece of information is not web-published, then we proceed to the next stage of contacting an author of a journal article in order to verify or disprove a statement made in the press for instance. We have systematically added Australian lead experts to our Technical Advisory Board over the years and are happy that constant interchanges to gain their views ensure scientific soundness of advisory materials.

During this financial year a major improvement to the efficiency of information service provision took place requiring firstly the conversion of our Access database to an SQL database. This enabled the following searchable databases to be added to our website to allow people to easily locate their own library articles from the 1640 online articles now entered in the GLASS database and answers on topics of interest in the list of 641 Questions from callers and Answers written by staff over the years: