Government alerts Esperance residents - tests reveal higher than recommended Lead levels

Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - The WA Health Department say they are alerting Esperance residents after 12 in 900 blood tests were shown to have "higher than recommended levels of lead." Ten adults and two children under five have recorded lead levels above the World Health Organisation guideline of 10 micrograms per decilitre in the town in southern WA...
The Department will contact 12 Esperance residents after their blood showed up higher than recommended levels of lead. Over 900 Esperance residents have now been tested.

The department's director of environmental health, Jim Dodds, says another 1,000 tests are expected to be conducted over the next 10 days. Mr Dodds says the department will contact all residents who have been affected.

"We're contacting adults that are above 10 [micrograms per decilitre] and we are actually trying to follow up with children that have greater than five," he said. "We are trying to work with the Esperance community to locate people who have greater than five and interview them to see if it can help us understand this pattern."

Planning Minister Alannah MacTiernan says she takes the lead contamination scare seriously. She says she supports calls for a parliamentary inquiry into the lead contamination, which has killed thousands of birds and created health problems for some residents.

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