"The NSW EPA currently administers 18 pollution control licences listing lead as a pollutant. The permitted levels of emissions vary by company and pollution pathway [you have to buy a copy of the licence to find out the levels – knowing the level of emissions that is allowed under the licence does not tell you the actual emissions]. Although there are environmental controls for certain mining and refining activities, an estimated 146 million tonnes of waste and some processing activities that contain residual amounts of metal were exempt from waste regulations."

The biggest question arising from reading the website is when will the community actually have full data sets for all emissions for whole years with all emitting facilities reporting so comparisons can be made and baseline data established? The strategy was developed 7 years ago – how long does it take? Is it working to rely on industry reporting?

When industry air emission figures are all low and the state government figures seem to have been plucked out of the air, it makes you wonder if the community wouldn’t have done a better job at measuring and estimating emissions given the millions that have been spent on the NPI.

Strategy 72. Review the Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Drugs and Poisons to reduce the permissible lead concentration of all paints except zinc based paints as defined by Australian Standards AS 2105 and AS 2204. Comment – as mentioned above, one reduction in domestic lead paint content took place in December 1997, from 0.25% to 0.1%.

Strategy 73. Extend the existing prohibitions for the use of First Schedule paints under the Uniform Paint Standard to include industrial buildings and structures, mines and oil terminals, food and drink preparation equipment and utensils and small-scale automotive repair work. Comment – this may have taken place but to my knowledge does not include auto paints.

Strategy 77. Adopt under the Commonwealth Trade Practices Act Australian Standard 1647 to control the levels of heavy metals in imported toys. Comment – according to the federal consumer affairs section of the treasury, this is not necessary and will not be done.

Strategy 78. Review monitoring surveillance for imported toys to ensure compliance with AS1647.  Comment – federal consumer affairs have written a report that has not been published or disseminated to the public.

Strategy 79. Direct all Government departments and agencies to use Government Paint Committee (GPC) Specifications for all painting work, to use GPC approved contractors for the removal of First Schedule paints and to comply with the proposed Australian Standard code of practice for the removal of paint containing lead. 79. Direct all Government departments and agencies to use Government Paint Committee (GPC) Specifications for all painting work, to use GPC approved contractors for the removal of First Schedule paints and to comply with the proposed Australian Standard code of practice for the removal of paint containing lead. Comment – this has probably not happened as the Lead Advisory Service Australia still receives calls from government officers in charge of organising paint removal on government structures who are unaware of the existence of the Australian Standards on Lead Paint Management or indeed the basic methods of lead-safe paint removal.

The Government Paint Committee has been replaced by the Australian Paint Approval Scheme, which has set up a Paint Contractor Certification Program but only industrial lead and other hazardous paints removal certification has been awarded and only to a handful of companies throughout Australia. So it would be safe to say that with the possible exception of bridge paint removal, government paint removal jobs would fall to non-lead certified painters in the vast majority of cases.

Objectives:

To make as many motorists as possible aware of the possibility of using unleaded petrol in pre-1986 vehicles. To make as many motorists as possible aware of the dangers of lead in leaded petrol to children's health.

Strategy 86. Continue to support the Federal Government's "Take the Step" campaign. 86. Continue to support the Federal Government's "Take the Step" campaign. Comment – the NSW Government provided minimal support for the campaign.

Strategy 87. Widely distribute the list of pre-1986 vehicles which can use unleaded petrol without engine modification. 87. Widely distribute the list of pre-1986 vehicles which can use unleaded petrol without engine modification. Comment – the NSW EPA produced a factsheet in 1994 on trialing unleaded petrol in cars not on the list but this was not reprinted when stocks ran out. During it’s lifetime from 1996-9, the NSW Lead Reference Centre has been very discouraging of the Lead Advisory Service doing much at all in the way of pro-active distribution of this information eg to car clubs.

Strategy 90. Gain industry agreement to relabel "super" petrol as "leaded" as soon as possible. Comment – done.

Strategy 91. Amend the Clean Air Regulations to take account of the use of other possible fuel additives if this becomes necessary. Comment – this does not appear to have been done. It is quickly apparent that they were all worked out using different estimation methods and thus the validity of all the data is highly suspect

IMPORTANT REQUEST TO READERS – I have written italicised comments after each component in the following government plans regarding consumer products – but I would love to hear from you if my comment is wrong or incomplete and will be happy to print a retraction with the good news about what has actually happened, in a later issue of LEAD Action News.

Review of NSW Lead Issues Paper 
Review of NHMRC Strategy 
Review of Ros Kelly’s Lead Roundtable 
Review of NSW Lead Management Action Plan 
Review of NSW Parliamentary Select Committee 
Review of OECD Declaration