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Mt Isa girl 'sick from dirt'
Topic Started: Feb 15 2009, 12:38 PM (57 Views)
Warren
Administrator
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Mt Isa girl 'sick from dirt'

By Rosemary Desmond

May 22, 2008 10:15am
Article from: AAP

A SIX-year-old girl from Mount Isa suffers from several health problems after playing in dirt at her former home in the northwest Queensland mining city, her mother says.

Daphne Hare has lodged a claim for unspecified damages in a test case against mining company Xstrata, the Mount Isa City Council and the Queensland government over lead levels found in the blood of her daughter Stella.

The Queensland Government will today release a report on a blood screening program in Mount Isa, which is expected to reveal that 11 per cent of 400 children tested had lead levels above World Health Organisation (WHO) standards.

Ms Hare, who is in Sydney for health checks on her daughter and won't be in Mt Isa for the report's release, says Stella is suffering from liver and kidney problems, irritability, depression and acute weight loss.

She weighs 15kg, far below a healthy weight range for a six-year-old.

"She has learning behaviours and normal behaviour problems," Ms Hare said on ABC radio today.

Stella also had a melanoma removed from her leg earlier this year.

Ms Hare said she noticed 18 months ago that her daughter was behaving badly and suffering from frequent ear, throat and chest infections and decided to investigate the cause after seeing advertisements for a government-funded lead testing campaign.

"I decided as a concerned parent to get her tested and find out," Ms Hare said.

The results showed Stella had lead levels far in excess of WHO recommended guidelines.

"I took her to Sydney at my own expense to see a toxicologist to try and get something done about it as I couldn't get any doctors in Mt Isa to give me any satisfaction," Ms Hare said.

Hair samples from Stella were then sent to the United States for further testing.

"I got the report back and found that my daughter has toxins in her, like arsenic, copper, cadmium, aluminium and quite a lot of others," Ms Hare said.

"I hope that the people responsible for this actually stand up and take some responsibility, and they will pay medical expenses for children and they will help us.

"It's not fair that people have to go through this and I certainly don't want anybody else to go through what I'm going through."

Other children in Mt Isa were also affected, she said.

"I would like other parents to stand up for their children and protect them," Ms Hare said.
"The families of these children are suffering, and I certainly hope there is a bit of heart out there."
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