The following article in The West Australian, go to URL http://www.thewest.com.au/ then search. Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002

Thousands at risk from weedkiller: Chance By Anne Buggins.

THOUSANDS of farmers and former government workers in the South-West and Wheatbelt may have been affected by their use of the controversial weedkiller 2,4,5-T.

Agriculture Minister Kim Chance, who used the chemical while farming, said he believed workers in cooler parts of WA were less at risk than those in the Kimberley because they were more likely to have worn protective clothing and equipment.
"Thousands of people have used the chemical," he said. "Many of those thousands will be sick. What we don't know is if it is related to the use of the chemical."

On Thursday, Mr Chance tabled in Parliament a report which found strong evidence that former Agriculture Protection Board workers who used the chemical in the Kimberley had suffered unexplained health problems and death because of their jobs between 1975 and 1985.

Mr Chance rejected the report's call for compensation, saying it was necessary to first set up a specialist medical team to try to establish a scientific link between use of the chemical and workers' ill health.

Yesterday, John Tucker, 49, a former APB district officer based in Williams, said he had gone out spraying road verges in just a singlet and shorts.

He said hundreds of APB workers, mainly casual seasonal staff, would have used the weedkiller in the South-West. "We were told we could drink the bloody stuff," he said.

Mr Tucker said he had battled chronic, unexplained ill health for five years.

"It's like I'm having a constant heart attack, I live on morphine to get through the day," he said. "I've thrown out my medication now hoping it will speed up the end.

"I want to volunteer as a human guinea pig so the doctors can establish a link."

An Agriculture Department official said about 1200 people had been involved in various types of chemical and non-chemical weed control but it was not known how many had used 2,4,5-T.

Department of Conservation and Land Management regional services director Alan Walker said hundreds of current and former forest workers, including himself, had used the weedkiller. Exposure of former Forests Department workers would have been limited because the chemical was used
directly on stumps and suckers in pine plantations for fairly short periods.

The department had consulted a toxicologist on the issue and had been assured that the risks of exposure for workers were low.

Australian Plaintiff Lawyers Association WA president Chris Phillips said anyone concerned about exposure to the chemical should contact a lawyer. There were two legal avenues available. People who made workers compensation claims were not restricted by time limits but could claim only a set amount.

Those who took private legal action under common law had the capacity to claim for complete compensation but usually had to do so within six years of the date of injury.

The Government intends to set up a telephone hotline for inquiries.

Fertilizers for native forests & plantations
Industrial waste being used in Gellibrand plantations

I found myself in a recently logged Midway pine plantation in the Gellibrand River Proclaimed Water Catchment (50,000 people's drinking water in the States southwest) last week.

I noticed a heap of discarded fertiliser slips at a log landing. These slips gave the ingredients of a 25 kg bag of Hi-Fert Pty Ltd fertiliser. (Hi-Fert are a subsidiary of WMC - Western Mining - owners of Roxby Downs).

The usual ingredients included nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, calcium were listed on the slips. But this batch also included; 8mg/kg of Cadmium, 1.6mg/kg of Mercury, 24mg/kg Lead with small traces of Aluminium and Fluorine (a by-product of the Aluminium industry- which WMC are also involved with). In less than one minute I found 8 of these labels lieing around.

This means that each bag of fertiliser used on this pine plantation contained: 200mg of Cadmium, 40mg of Mercury and 600mg of Lead.

I found 8 of these labels meaning that at least 8 bags of this stuff were used - the actual figure would be much higher. So just on what I found: at least 1600mg of Cadmium, 320 mg of Mercury and 4800mg of Lead were recently dumped onto this pine plantation near the headwaters of Barramunga Creek in a domestic water catchment that supplies over 50,000 with drinking water.

If I was a very dodgy mining company and I wanted to offload heaps of industrial waste, would I dump of all this waste in one location incurring the wrath of people living in that area, or would I spread the waste all over many farms and plantations throughout Australia under the disguise of a nice safe and clean fertiliser company? Furthermore if I was a dodgy mining company and I know of an equally dodgy woodchipping company could I persuade that woodchipping company to dispose of large quantities of my industrial waste for me in their pine plantations by upping the industrial waste content of my fertilisers?

Why do trees need Lead and Mercury and Cadmium to grow? Do the trees absorb these heavy metals? What happens to the heavy metals when the tree is cut down?

For more information on this scam also read:
www.hancock.forests.org.au/docs/herbicidesUpdate0602.htm#waste

Back-date September 03, 2002

Rumours that DNRE want to start using fertilisers in native forests

It's rumoured that DNRE want to start using fertilisers in native forests.
Their regeneration is not fairing too well so they need a 'growth-booster'.

Plantation companies use fertilisers already. For instance Amcor used
1.5 million tonnes of the stuff a few years back. Unsure how much
Hancock now use. Hancock buy their fertiliser from a sales, marketing and distribution company called Hi-Fert.

Hi-Fert is a subsidiary of WMC Pty Ltd (that's right - the uranium miners). Hi-Fert mainly sells ammonium phosphate fertilisers. Ammonium phosphate fertilisers are sourced from 3 processes and mixed
together:

(a) Sulphuric acid sourced from metalurgical sulphur dioxide emissions at MIM mines in Mount Isa and Sun Metals (a Korean owned Zinc refinery) based in Townsville.
(b) Ammonia from natural gas supplied through the Carpentaria pipeline
(c) Phosphate rock from WMC's operation at Phosphate Hill in Qld.
Ammonium phosphate is also produced at WMC's Nickel refinery in WA.

Nothing like a nice dose of industrial waste in your water catchments!