Hunter Valley cancer cluster report to be made public

Apr 13 2010

By Candy Lashkari

Cancer cases may have manifested as brain tumors in the local population in Upper Hunter Valley as a result of pollution from mines and power stations. With five residents in a single block in Singleton being diagnosed with brain tumors a public inquiry to establish just how harmful dust and toxins from the mines and power stations are had been constituted by the state government.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said “We're pulling together that into a comprehensive report and we have just got to update that report with issues around the brain cancer cluster. It's complicated because people are exposed to air quality both indoors and outdoors, and there are other sources and factors and we will need to do a rigorous study in order to answer the community's questions"

The results of the investigation made in NSW Hunter Valley into the alleged cancer cluster will soon be made available to the public as per Premier Keneally on ABC’s Four Corners. “When we have reports of this nature we do go in to an initial investigation," she told reporters in Sydney. "That's what will be happening. If the evidence requires further study, of course, that will happen."

The area has seen increased respiratory diseases and cancer in residents and there has only been anecdotal evidence of a link between the illnesses and the mining industry so far. School children have been said to suffer from reduced lung capacity in the region. This study will hope to establish the link to the mines and the power station activity to the health of the locals.

NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said that the government needed to take action and that the state government may face legal claims over the issue in the future. Ms Rhiannon urged the state health minister Carmel Tebbut to get proactive about the issue.

"The health minister cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the health risks of coal mining and power generators for Hunter residents, following news of a possible cancer cluster in Singleton and lower than average lung function in school children," said Ms Rhiannon

University of Newcastle associate professor Nick Higginbotham has researched the impact of large coal mines on the environment and on human health. According to him the conditions in the Upper Hunter Valley area are “not very good at all”. The opposition’s health spokesperson Jillian Skinner is urging the government to reveal what it already knows based on the initial investigations.

Criticizing the slow action of the state government Jillian Skinner said, “"I know the Government can report on the incidence of asthma, other chronic illnesses and diseases that cause death - of course they can. They've got that information now, its partly reported through the Clinical Excellence Commission. They could publish much more but they've been slow to actually do anything.”