State let Xstrata vet spin on lead

EXECUTIVES from Xstrata were given draft reports into a blood-screening program that found 11 per cent of Mount Isa's children have lead poisoning.

EXECUTIVES from Swiss miner Xstrata vetted Queensland government press releases and were given draft reports into a blood-screening program that found 11 per cent of Mount Isa's children have lead poisoning.

As the final report of the program is released today in Mount Isa, documents obtained by The Australian reveal the Government and Xstrata colluded in handling media interest and public outcry over suspected metal contamination in the central Queensland town.

The documents, obtained under Freedom of Information, show Xstrata, rather than the Government, is the architect of a proposed new entity to address the problem.

The body, tentatively titled "Mt Isa Plus" in Environmental Protection Authority documents last year, would be partially funded by taxpayers.

EPA director-general Terry Wall told Sustainability Minister Andrew McNamara in a briefing note last year that Xstrata proposed that the board of Mt Isa Plus comprise senior representatives of Queensland Health, the EPA, the local community and Xstrata.

The documents are expected to be used as evidence in several tests cases by Slater & Gordon lawyers on behalf of children whose tests have shown dangerously high blood lead levels.

The Queensland Health blood-screening program of 400 children was launched after The Australian revealed in 2006 that independent soil tests showed widespread metal contamination, in the face of inaction over similar tests in 1990 that led to the closure of a childcare centre.

Australian and US studies have found that high levels of lead in children cause learning and behavioural difficulties.

Former chief environmental officer for Mount Isa City Council Ted Prickett said last week he believed there had been a cover-up, involving the council and possibly the state government, after tests in 1992 found at least a third of the town's children had unsafe blood lead levels.

The latest screening program was launched with the establishment of the Living with Lead Alliance, which included Xstrata, the council and government agencies, but no community representatives.

In one email, obtained under FOI, health bureaucrat Rosalie Spencer alerts Xstrata community relations manager Melanie Edgar on March 8 to a visit to Mount Isa by a Queensland newspaper journalist.

Ms Spencer attaches a biography of the reporter. "I'll probably write up an overview of the lead screening program for her and give her some of the fact sheets. Copy you in on this," she wrote.

Ms Edgar responded: "I'll need to run the release past Steve tomorrow for approval, but it should be fine to provide Marg (Courier-Mail journalist Margaret Wenham) with a copy. It would be ideal if I could get a feel (of) the type of update Queensland Health will be providing her on the lead issue."

It is thought the Steve referred to is Xstrata chief operating officer Steve de Kruijff.

In a December 11, 2007, email to Labor MP Betty Kiernan and several Queensland Health and EPA officers, Ms Edgar details the preliminary findings of the program that had yet to be released to the public.

"Queensland Health is preparing a media release to be issued later today from the ministers office with the following main points recorded," she wrote. "Please find attached a copy of Xstrata's media release which we will proactively issue once the Queensland Health announcement has been made.

"Our key points include ... Mt Isa Mines has not waited for the 400 (children) to be reached (in the screening) to improve lead management at its operations."