Talk:Toxic wetlands may be cause of thousands of bird deaths in Western Australia

Last Update: Thursday, March 15, 2007. 11:37am (AEDT) Authorities believe lead poisoning to be the likely cause of the bird deaths around Esperance. (File photo) (REUTERS) Lead poisoning fears grow in Esperance with further bird deaths By David Weber for PM

Western Australia's Health Department is trying to allay fears that the people of the southern coastal town of Esperance may have been contaminated with lead.

The fears stem from the deaths of thousands of birds in and around the town in September 2006 - with more dead birds found last week.

The Department of Environment has found the cause may be lead poisoning.

Lead concentrate has been shipped out of Esperance Port for about 18 months, and even though lead dust has not been conclusively blamed for the bird deaths, shipments have been suspended.

People in the town are fearing for their children's health.

Now that it has found the likely cause of the deaths, the Department of Environment is testing for lead sources around Esperance.

Many of the dead birds found in recent weeks were around schools. But director of Environmental Health Jim Dodds says that does not mean the schools are the source.

He says it is hard to determine lead poisoning and anyone who is worried should get a referral for a blood test from their doctor.

But Mr Dodds says there is no evidence yet that the human population has had any exposure to lead.

"We've seen the results of some analysis of bloods of people who've been done voluntarily in the community, and none of the numbers that we've seen in that have been very high," he said.

"In fact, some of the ones we've seen have been well below Australian average numbers. And we are quite confident that those ones we've seen are well below that guideline value.

"We've seen a family that was connected, we've seen a couple of others and we've also seen the results of occupational lead exposures in the community."

Mr Dodds says if residents have not had their rainwater tanks tested for lead, they should not use them.

"Whilst they've been over the Australian drinking water guideline values, have actually [have] just been over," he said.

"It's not unusual to see that in rainwater tanks, especially if there's lead plumbing devices connected, as there often are in roof catchments. And we want to have a look to just confirm that's the case there."

Shire president Ian Mickel says the people of Esperance do have concerns.

"Whether it's in people's bodies at the present time in minute amounts or not is not what we're looking for," he said.

"It's free for people to go and have a blood test to themselves and check their own personal health.

"But we want to know if this is in our atmosphere or in our environment, spread across our community. And that's what we need to find out as soon as possible.

CSIRO study

Professor Brian Gulson conducted a CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) study into lead levels in Broken Hill in the 1990s.

He has since carried out further studies in Port Pirie, Mount Isa and Hobart.

Now with the Graduate School of the Environment at Macquarie University, Professor Gulson has been asked to help with the Esperance problem.

He says there are new studies associating high lead levels in blood with anti-social behaviour.

"The most important ones these days that are coming out of the studies - especially that have been carried out in the US - are behavioural problems, and they've actually been associating high blood lead levels with delinquency and even... and crime," he said.

"The biggest concern, or one of the big concerns, is the neurological effects, of course, which can affect the learning… give rise to learning difficulties in children."

Professor Gulson says the bird deaths may be an early warning sign for the people of Esperance.

"The birds may be showing us that they're so-called sentinels. The work at Broken Hill, in fact, the alarm bells were rung in Broken Hill by the vets out there showing that the dogs were dying and then the people suddenly say, 'Oh gosh, if the dogs are dying, then what's happening to our children?'," he said.

"And this business of dogs being sentinels, and maybe the birds are being sentinels, was known back in the days of Pliny - talked about dogs dying with a special rapidity. And so certainly if it affects the birds, there's a very good chance that it affects people.

"The most sensitive people, of course, would be young children, who would be crawling around in the dirt and getting the material on their hands and then putting it in their mouth."