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Amita Chanaria and her 17-month-old daughter Myra have lived in Mount Isa for just two months.
Already, the toddler has too much lead in her body.
"I went two weeks back to get a normal check-up for my daughter … and they did a prick test and her levels came out to be 6.1 [micrograms of lead per decilitre of blood]," Ms Chanaria said.
"I was a bit concerned and alarmed as well at the same time because I didn't expect it to happen, not at all, within two months I don't expect her lead levels to go high."
Lead is a neurotoxin that can stunt growth and lead to learning disabilities.
There is no known safe level of lead exposure for children, but the National Health and Medical Research Council recommends action to reduce exposure when a child tests above five micrograms of lead per decilitre of blood.
In the largest test to date, new Queensland Health data has confirmed that 25 per cent of the 1010 Mount Isa children tested under the age of five had blood lead levels above or equal to that.
This includes 18 per cent of those who had blood tests, and 28 per cent of the children whose levels were assessed by the finger prick tests.
Mines have 'licence to pollute', expert says
Mount Isa's history with lead is longstanding — the very discovery of the heavy metal was the catalyst for the birth of the north-west Queensland city in 1923.
A 2017 report commissioned by Glencore acknowledged the mine was a source of "potentially significant" lead pollution.
In a statement, Mount Isa Mines said they operate in full compliance with the regulatory standards set under the approved Environmental Authority for lead-in-air emissions and have spent more than $500 million on environmental measures since 2003.
The statement also added that Mount Isa Mines believes the city is a safe place to live and work.
Macquarie University environmental science professor Mark Taylor said while Mount Isa Mines have followed the rules imposed on them by the state government, something needs to change.
"When one looks at [the mine's] environmental authority, it is clear that they are meeting the requirements of that authority," he said.
"However, in meeting those guidelines it is evident that those guidelines are still too lax.
"I think it's evident that they have a licence to pollute, but that licence is probably not strict enough."
The Queensland Government has always maintained the mining city is a safe place to live, but Health Minister Steven Miles conceded that having a population on the doorstop of a mining operation is far from perfect.
"I think, clearly more does need to be done," he said.
"If you were designing a city from scratch you might not have designed it the way Mount Isa was designed, but this is a legacy issue."
Glencore funds the blood tests and finger-prick tests in the city as part of its commitment to local health and safety, and parents are regularly encouraged to have their children tested.
But despite the uncertainty around the impact of lead, not all families are worried.
Some residents not concerned at all
Bernard and Jacque Gillic were born in Mount Isa, are bring up three children in the city, and are adamant there's no problem with lead.
"We're not concerned about lead at all," Mr Gillic said.
"The kids have regular hygiene and showers, they don't eat the dirt or anything like that."
Mr Gillic said his two younger children had the finger-prick test when taken in for regular check-ups but do not intend on testing them outside of that.
"I was born here, grew up here, I never had any issue to think I had lead issues," she said.
And the Gillics aren't alone.
A James Cook University study into community awareness has found half the parents surveyed don't see lead as a health risk.
"Fifty per cent of the parents or carers in Mount Isa perceive that high lead level is not a concern for their child, because they don't perceive their child could get high lead levels," research lead Dr Yaqoot Fatima said.
Dr Fatima said this perception came from a belief in parents that they are managing the risk well.
But Professor Taylor said this is unfair on parents.
"The problem with the argument that parents are doing the right thing is that they may well be doing the best that they can do, but if you have a continuous rain of lead being deposited on and in your house, no matter how much effort, it's not possible for you to eliminate the exposure," he said.
"It would be much simpler and fairer to prevent the contamination from leaving the facility in the first place."
Ms Chanaria said despite following the guidelines of wet-mopping and hand-washing, she doesn't know what else she can do to protect her daughter.
"I clean my house hygienically, I prepare everything in a neat environment … I can't do anything better than that," she said.
Her friend Nandini Nair said she's very worried about the lead levels of her 14-month-old son Dev.
She also follows the advice about mitigating the risks of lead but said it's very difficult to stop a toddler playing on the ground and putting their hands in their mouth.
"I do all the precautions at home … but then they are also close to nature as well," she said.
Queensland's Public Health Medical Officer Dr Steven Donohue said while improvements are being sought across the board, it's the at-risk groups that should be looked at first.
"It's the poorer families, the Indigenous families, those who are living in old or government-owned housing that is in poor condition, or children who are living in the riverbed," he said.
Despite having one of the most comprehensive air-testing systems in Australia, Dr Donohoe said more testing is required.
"We shouldn't be using children to tell us what's happening in the environment, we should be testing soils, we should be testing housing, we should … work very closely with the mining company and the smelter to ensure emissions levels and air levels and what's falling in dust has as low levels of lead as possible," he said.
Topics: mining-industry, mining-environmental-issues, lead, regional-development, local-government, children, health-policy, child-health-and-behaviour, environmental-management, environment, activism-and-lobbying, government-and-politics, mount-isa-4825, brisbane-4000, qld, longreach-4730
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