Editorial

This newsletter is a case study of just how drawn-out, complicated, frustrating and distressing it is to try to get government bureaucracies and mining companies to investigate what is making the residents of a mining town – and their pet animals – sick. The local rivers have also been affected, with an alarming reduction in aquatic life.

The residents of Rosebery, a small mining town in the west of Tasmania, have taken on the task. Some of them have formed themselves into the Toxic Heavy Metals Taskforce Tasmania (THMTT), known locally as “The Taskforce”. They have to deal with the local council, the State Department of Health and Human Services, the Environment Protection Authority and the company.  The struggle continues. [Please note: The Mayor of West Coast Council was asked but did not have time, on very short notice, to reply to criticism of him. We have invited him to do so in a future newsletter, if possible.]

LEAD Action News Volume 10 Number 4 brings together the work of the Taskforce up to June 2010, but that work includes some important earlier web-publications on this issue by the Taskforce so please also see:

• REDUCING YOUR EXPOSURE TO HEAVY METALS IN ROSEBERY: Health Risks and Heavy Metals YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW
• CRITIQUE of the ‘Investigation into Concerns Regarding Seepage Water in a Critique of the Rosebery locality - Final Report from the Project Team’ (DHHS, EPA 2009)
• Group Proposes Terms of Reference for the 'First' Tasmanian Integrity Commission Inquiry into the Health Department and EPA Investigations in Rosebery: INTEGRITY COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO DHHS. EPHS and EPA ROSEBERY INVESTIGATIONS 2008/2009/2010
• Proposals For Action On Heavy Metal Contamination And Health Risks In Rosebery: Submission to Rosebery Technical Advisory Group Meeting Hobart, 17th March 2010, at 

Please see the Acknowledgements near the end of this newsletter. If you would like to contact the Taskforce, please email Kay Seltitzas