News from the Secretary, 30 September 2004
Annual General Meeting
The AGM will be held in Brisbane on Saturday 16th October 2004 at 2.15pm. This is being held in Queensland to give our many Queensland members the opportunity to attend. The venue is Room 34, second floor of Mayne Medical School, Herston Rd. Herston (next door to the Royal Brisbane Hospital). Come in through the main front entrance doors and up one flight of stairs. The room is directly in front of the stairs/ lifts.
Professor Ian Lowe will address Members after the AGM 6 to 8pm
Venue; Room number 6929, 6th level of the Ned Hanlon Building. (New RBWH building, off Butterfield Street).
The meeting will consist of a short address by Ian Lowe on “Seedy suburbs, toxic towns and sick cities” followed by a question and answer session. Finger food and wine will be served
Environmental Questionnaire to Federal politicians
This initiative has been very successful in terms of the response from the political parties. Extensive submissions have been received and the official party responses are on the web page for you to read You will find comparison of the submissions revealing
DEA initiatives
Members will see that our initiatives have been on national issues during the past year. These have been dictated by the forthcoming Federal Election and our decision to brief Ministers and Members on the health aspects of Climate Change and related matters. When the election is over we have the opportunity to involve ourselves more actively in State matters. Our attempt to form effective State committees reflects this need. These matters will be discussed at our meetings on October16.
However, we already involve ourselves in state issues, usually because members of DEA involve us!. I will summarise two recent issues below.
Tasmanian Forestry and water contamination
You will have seen some of the television programs on these issues. There is little doubt that under the recurrent banner of ‘worlds best practice’ aerial spraying of forests with substances such as atrazine has contaminated water sources. In a very successful campaign, one of our members Alison Bleaney has followed up a major oyster kill in St Helens Bay on the basis that this was probably caused by run off of chemicals from spraying and from a helicopter crash during aerial spraying. Already it can be recognised that there is a potential health issue relating to the actions in forestry, the lack of records, the fact that freedom of information is excluded from some of these issues, and the contamination of water and individuals by spraying. Clearly this matter cannot be separated from the continued lack of concern over forest destruction shown by the Tasmanian Government and industry.
Alison, congratulations on your efforts, our role has been only a minor supportive one, but I believe our presence has an impact.
We see DEAs role to act behind the scenes in such matters, supplying scientific opinion with the weight of the names on our Scientific Committee behind it. For example on the basis of the precautionary principle we have supported calls be AMA Tasmania for cessation of aerial spraying till further studies are established and completed and we have supplied information to Senator Heffernan who has been investigating these matters on behalf of the Prime Minister. We have also had input with the department of Public Health in Tasmania.
Over the years there seems to be a standard government response to these issues. Interviewed on Earthbeat, ABC Radio National a Tasmanian Minister was asked about the recent finding of a carcinogenic chemical in the drinking water. He said “I would drink it”, Questioner—“Why?” Minister, “basically the scientific evidence was that it was a limited risk” It is interesting how this defensive and justificational response is so common in governments. When mad cow disease emerged in the UK and on a day when it was not yet known whether this would be an epidemic involving thousands of human cases, a Minister assured the public he would eat beef, and in his bravado he placed his young daughter in front of the TV cameras to eat a beef burger. There are numerous cases of ministers drinking radioactive water, water with heavy metals, and water with bacterial contamination. Perhaps DEA should run a preventative health course for Ministers
The Daintree rainforest
Yes the Daintree is not yet saved! There is much land within the confines or the forest where development can take place and threaten the integrity of the forest. Alerted by some north Queensland members of DEA we have been lobbying members of the Douglas shire council and the Queensland government to stop further development with buyback of privately owned land. Our approach is always to explain why this is a health issue, preservation of the Daintree has strong climate change and biodiversity implications.
Alastair Hart, a member of DEA in Cairns was our representative at a climate change press conference in the Daintree with John Rainbird of the Cairns and far North Qld Environment association and with Don Henry of ACF. Well done Alastair, there was good media coverage.
AND if you havn’t been to the Daintree, please take your children. It is so beautiful it certainly altered my life and I suspect that of my children.
Membership renewal
About half our members have renewed their subscriptions for the financial year July 2004 to July 2005. If you havn’t renewed please do so promptly, this saves us time that can be better spent on environmental health issues There are still many doctors on our mailing list who have not yet formally joined DEA. We would appreciate your support with a $42 tax -deductible subscription (or a larger amount if you can afford it).
David Shearman, September 30th, 2004