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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/sep/05/environment-watchdog-buried-report-on-lead-in-childrens-blood-to-placate-mining-companies-emails-show>
"The New South Wales environment watchdog sat on a report for four years
linking elevated levels of lead in children’s blood to current mining, and
promised mining companies they would not do any “finger-pointing”, new
documents tabled in state parliament show.
The documents include internal emails released under freedom of information
laws that show the scientist who produced the report into lead exposure in
Broken Hill was at one point texting the Environment Protection Authority every
two days asking when it would be published.
According to an email from a manager summarising her briefing to the mining
companies, when the agency did release the report, it told them the EPA would
“quietly load it onto the LeadSmart website and not tell anyone”, and said they
would ensure there was “no fanfare or media release” and that they were “not
doing any finger-pointing at the mines”.
The NSW Greens said the documents, tabled in the state parliament last week,
exposed a “concerning culture” within the EPA, with the party’s mining
spokesperson, Cate Faehrmann, expressing alarm that it had taken four years
before the research was finally published in late 2023, and accusing the EPA in
parliament of suppressing it.
Prof Mark Taylor delivered his report summarising all of the existing published
scientific research on environmental lead risks at Broken Hill, where there has
been long-term mining of the metal, to the EPA in 2019.
Emails show lead mining companies in Broken Hill were given access to the
report and its findings at least a year before it was made available to the
general public.
A NSW EPA spokesperson said the community was provided with the draft report in
2020."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
