Editorial

by Elizabeth O'Brien

First the bad news - The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) knocked back funding on the Asian/Australian Training Institute for Lead-Based Paint Hazard Abatement, after Australia's shocking stance at the OECD in June 1994.

Now for the good news - "A court directive has required the US EPA to establish soil lead criteria to facilitate court actions on contaminated site issues." (Ref. NSW Lead in Soil and Dust Working Group). We print what will probably be used as Australia's guidelines for several years before our own are developed.

Now for the bizarre news - the adulteration of paprika in Hungary - what can I say?

This issue of LEAD Action News focuses on a wide variety of health effects of lead.

Lead and delinquency - US lead researcher Dr Ann-Marie Krocetti says possibly 40-50% of delinquents are lead poisoned. When will we see intervention strategies for these youths which take lead into account and more importantly, when will we learn that prevention is the best cure.

More reasons to get lead out of petrol - sniffing and a 1993 article by Julian Cribb with some fascinating statistics on lead's effect on blood pressure. You are more likely to die from a lead-induced heart attack than in a car accident.

Even if the petrol doesn't get you via heart attack, it seems people who work with the lead additive in petrol are twice as likely to suffer from skin cancer as workers not exposed to the lead additive. Brain and respiratory cancer are also possibilities for these workers while workers exposed to inorganic lead can get stomach and lung cancer according to a review of studies involving 2,402 deaths from cancer in workers.

No wonder doctors are being urged by the AMA to join the environmental debate.

Prof. Gulson and Fred Salome of The LEAD Group's Technical Advisory Board have provided an excellent summary of health effects and Brian explains why hair lead testing is not interpretable.

Robin Mosman has provided a summary of feedback on the LEADLINE Project, to keep you up to date and this edition ends with some great lead poems.