Alarming Survey Results

The following short note is reprinted from Sydney's Child newspaper August 1996, with kind permission.

Doctors at Central Sydney Area Health Service have called on central Sydney GPs to blood test children who are at risk of high lead levels. The move follows the release of a survey of lead levels, which found about 25 percent of all inner Sydney pre-schoolers have levels higher than the maximum recommended by health authorities. Children aged between one and four who live in older houses, especially where renovations are being done or who live on a major road, are among those most at risk. The Director of the Central Sydney Division of General Practice, Professor Michael Mira, says the appeal was made to GPs because they had more contact with pre-schoolers than any other group of health professionals.