Mount Isa panorama
from City Lookout. Mount Isa City covers an area of over 43 310 square kilometres, making it geographically the second largest city in Australia to Kalgoorlie-Boulder WA. With a population of approximately 23 500, Mount Isa is a major service centre for North West Queensland, and a thriving city well equipped to satisfy residential, business and industrial needs. In 1923 lone prospector John Campbell Miles, while travelling on a gold prospecting trip to the Northern Territory, camped by the banks of the Leichhardt River. Sampling a nearby rock outcrop, he realised that it was heavily mineralised. Campbell Miles had stumbled on to one of the world's richest copper, silver, lead and zinc ore bodies. He decided to call his discovery "Mount Isa" after the stories he had heard of the Mount Ida goldfield in Western Australia. Almost 100 years later, the Mount Isa Mine (now owned by Swiss mining giant, Xstrata) is still one of Australia's largest producers of copper ore. The early pioneers of Mount Isa faced many hardships. The lack of water, remoteness, the summer heat, high costs and scarcity of essential items made life extremely difficult.
The ABC reported that a new study has suggested one child develops lead poisoning every nine days in the north-west Queensland mining city of Mount Isa.
Mining giant Xstrata is involved in legal action over high levels of lead in the blood of children in the city.
Dr Mark Taylor from Macquarie University co-authored the report, published today in the Medical Journal of Australia.
He says existing data confirms there is a risk to children's health in Mount Isa and not enough is being done to address the issue.
"There are about 400 children born every year in Mount Isa and about 11 per cent of those children, according to the last blood lead study, have a blood lead level in excess of the current acceptable guideline value," he said.
"When you do all the numbers, it works out it's about every nine days a child will be unnecessarily exposed to lead - a situation that could be prevented."
Mount Isa panorama
from City Lookout. Mount Isa City covers an area of over 43 310 square kilometres, making it geographically the second largest city in Australia to Kalgoorlie-Boulder WA. With a population of approximately 23 500, Mount Isa is a major service centre for North West Queensland, and a thriving city well equipped to satisfy residential, business and industrial needs. In 1923 lone prospector John Campbell Miles, while travelling on a gold prospecting trip to the Northern Territory, camped by the banks of the Leichhardt River. Sampling a nearby rock outcrop, he realised that it was heavily mineralised. Campbell Miles had stumbled on to one of the world's richest copper, silver, lead and zinc ore bodies. He decided to call his discovery "Mount Isa" after the stories he had heard of the Mount Ida goldfield in Western Australia. Almost 100 years later, the Mount Isa Mine (now owned by Swiss mining giant, Xstrata) is still one of Australia's largest producers of copper ore. The early pioneers of Mount Isa faced many hardships. The lack of water, remoteness, the summer heat, high costs and scarcity of essential items made life extremely difficult.
The ABC reported that a new study has suggested one child develops lead poisoning every nine days in the north-west Queensland mining city of Mount Isa.
Mining giant Xstrata is involved in legal action over high levels of lead in the blood of children in the city.
Dr Mark Taylor from Macquarie University co-authored the report, published today in the Medical Journal of Australia.
He says existing data confirms there is a risk to children's health in Mount Isa and not enough is being done to address the issue.
"There are about 400 children born every year in Mount Isa and about 11 per cent of those children, according to the last blood lead study, have a blood lead level in excess of the current acceptable guideline value," he said.
"When you do all the numbers, it works out it's about every nine days a child will be unnecessarily exposed to lead - a situation that could be prevented."