Yet another poisoned former WA Government worker from Derby died last week, and another over Christmas (R.I.P. Brothers).
We will keep fighting for you.
Westralia.net is still asking, and has still received no answers from our earlier questions to Agriculture Minister Kim Chance.
The biggest question is why does the WA Government spend so much money when they simply refuse to properly investigate the scores of premature deaths and debilitating illnesses.
The so-called Expert Medical Panel simply dismisses the evidence of ridiculously so far off-spec 245T with extreme dioxin content(really "toxic waste", not production herbicide) being supplied to the Kimberly workers. Bruce Armstrong says he found no evidence. Well, check out the following transcript and footnote.
Courtesy of ABC TV's "7:30 Report":
MICK O'DONNELL: Both the Queensland Forestry workers and the Kimberley spray gangs believe they were victims of a rogue batch of the chemical dumped in Australia during the Vietnam War.
CARL DRYSDALE, KIMBERLEY AGRICULTURE DEPT WORKER: All of a sudden we got all of these drums and then we asked where they came from.
MICK O'DONNELL: Most of the 245T the Derby workers used had come in drums like this one, clearly labelled by the Kwinana Company which sold it to the Agriculture Protection Board.
But the batch which arrived in Derby in the early 70s was unlabelled, in second hand drums.
CARL DRYSDALE: The original stuff was sort of like a honey consistency or an engine oil consistency and this stuff was dark brown with silvery coloured streaks through it.
MICK O'DONNELL: And remarkably, workers on the other side of the country also recall a similar strange batch of the chemical arriving in the early 70s.
SID ARMSTRONG: It was a black, sludgy looking stuff.
It looked like a black treacle.
MICK O'DONNELL: And those descriptions sound remarkably like the sample Canberra professor of chemistry Ben Selinger hunted down when he investigated a rogue batch of 245T in 1981.
EMERITUS PROF BEN SELINGER, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY: The sample we had of the fire damaged stock was black and viscous and not like you'd expect pure 245T to look.
MICK O'DONNELL: The mystery of the rogue batch takes us back to this plant, south of Perth.
Chemical Industries Kwinana was importing 245T during the Vietnam War.
A report by the Tariff Board in 1971, tabled in Parliament, found the company was importing fire damaged 245T from Singapore, dumped here at low prices.
EMERITUS PROF BEN SELINGER: Fire damage, particularly at the stage it was being transformed at in Singapore, would increase significantly the levels of dioxin in the 245T.
MICK O'DONNELL: Is it possible that some of that ended up in the Kimberley, used by those workers?
PROF BRUCE ARMSTRONG: I think it's certainly possible.
We found no evidence of it but nobody seems to know what happened to it.
READERS, PLEASE NOTE:
Professor Bruce Armstrong did not meet or interview any of the affected workers in Derby, nor did he access their medical records held there.
"We found no evidence.."
He clearly states in his report that the Panel did not call for submissions and none were received. Similarly, the Panel did not seek to interview any APB workers.
...But still the experts managed to gain five (5) psychiatric reports on the affected workers!
Absolutely stunning stuff!
Come on people, where's the critical analysis of this joke?
Bruce, you won't find evidence if you refuse to look or ask questions.
...but then again, maybe you knew that already.
We have been told the cost of this is around $160,000.
Bloody great inquiry paid for by the WA public while our poisoned citizens continue to die.
Shamefully sad.
These people today, your children tomorrow.
That sounds dramatic, but this is why we are here, because as you can see, there is no sign from the WA Government that lessons are ever learned year in year out.
Why face problems when you can sweep them under the carpet? ...so it will continue to the next generation. Why shouldn't it?
Wittenoom asbestos M.O. lives on. People die.
What are you going to do about it?
Posted by Westralia.Net
at 12:08 AM WST
Updated: Wednesday, 31 March 2004 12:24 AM WST