The following statement from Tasmania’s Director of Public Health, Dr Roscoe Taylor, is in response to a two-part story aired on ABC television’s Australian Story program on 15 and 22 February. The story related to concerns that have been raised by Dr Alison Bleaney about drinking water quality at St Helens on Tasmania’s east coast.
"Dr Bleaney’s concerns for river water quality and her community have always been appreciated as they help to increase awareness of important public health issues such as drinking water quality. Keeping pesticides and chemicals out of our waterways makes good public health as well as environmental sense.
Tasmania now has what is probably Australia’s most comprehensive statewide monitoring system in place to detect pesticide contamination events, with further refinements to the system expected in the future. There have been a number of low-level detections in streams since commencement in 2005 and wherever possible these are investigated by the relevant Department. However none of the levels detected in streams have reached anywhere near the national ‘Health Values’ set by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and it is very uncommon for such contaminants to be detected at all in community drinking water supplies. The NHMRC Health Values are based on safe consumption over a whole lifetime, so it is regarded as extremely unlikely that any adverse health effects will ever arise because of such episodes in the past. Nonetheless over the past five years as Director of Public Health I have twice taken action on a precautionary basis to prohibit a polluter from using a chemical in catchments.
In relation to Dr Bleaney’s original concerns about cancer rates in the St Helen’s area in 2004, these have never been able to be substantiated. Our investigation included review of the types of cancers she listed, an assessment of the likely occurrence of certain diseases that had been raised as concerns, and an audit and independent review of thirteen patient charts she had selected regarding neurological cases in her general practice. None of these suggested any abnormal clustering of particular disease types. We have also monitored cancer rates for the area, and there has been nothing to suggest anything out of the ordinary or adverse trends, including in the more recent reports from the Tasmanian Cancer Registry.”