I’ve been getting some feedback, specifically relating to sections of the Safe Work Australia guidelines and RSHQ Regulations. Some of this has been presented before but I think it’s important to go over it again. with a bit of emphasis.

In a nutshell, your employer has a regulatory obligation to inform you of risks you face as a lead worker. That is, you have the legal right to know what you’re signing up for when you engage in lead risk work. (The italics and bolding below are mine).

From the RSHQ regulations,

145B Giving information about health risks of lead process
(1) A site senior executive for a mine must give information about
a lead process carried out at the mine to a worker at the mine
before the worker is first exposed to the lead process.
(2) If work is identified as a lead process after a worker is
exposed to the work, the site senior executive must give
information about the lead process to the worker as soon as
practicable after the lead process is identified.
(3) The information that must be given is—
(a) information about the health risks and toxic effects
associated with exposure to lead; and
(b) the need for, and details of, lead health surveillance and
biological monitoring under schedule 2E, part 4

That’s pretty clear. You are supposed to be told about the risks of lead exposure. There’s a lot more detail about what you are supposed to be told in the Safe Work Australia Guidelines:

Workers should be informed of the potential health effects associated with exposure to inorganic lead including the different risks to men and women and people of younger age (i.e. less than18 years of age).

Workers should be informed of the bioaccumulation of lead and be advised to minimise exposure particularly for long term lead risk work.

Family planning

Workers who consider they have not completed their family should be counselled on the health effects of lead on male and female reproduction, as appropriate.

Female workers working in lead risk jobs should be informed exposure to lead during pregnancy may be associated with pregnancy complications and may pose a risk to the development of the foetus. Female workers should be counselled on the effects of lead on foetal and childhood development, in particular cognitive development.

Females of reproductive capacity should be informed about the reproductive health risks where blood lead levels may exceed 10 μg/dL (0.48 μmol/L). It is highly recommended that in order to give maximum protection to the foetus, women who are planning a pregnancy should endeavour to limit lead exposure to a blood lead level well below 5 μg/dL (0.24 μmol/L) for a period of at least a year prior to pregnancy.

Male workers should be informed that exposure to lead may adversely affect reproductive function.

I’ve posted more of this guideline, with my comments, in a previous blog about the harm, particularly to women of child-bearing age but I’ve presented that before, and I’d rather concentrate on the disclosure aspects.

In other industries, when employees are informed about issues like security that are potentially part of a legal process, they are asked to sign a statement that they have read and understood the contents of the statement.

Disclosure of the risks incurred in a lead risk procedure appears to be a legal requirement, so I would expect that Glencore would have proof that each and every one of their lead workers has read and understood a comprehensive list of health hazards they face due to enhanced lead exposure.

A legal requirement. And yet I’m getting feedback this may not have happened.

IF that’s the case, and it’s entirely possible people have simply forgotten, but IF that’s the case, then not only have you not been informed, but you haven’t been properly or effectively monitored and you haven’t been treated to remove the harmful lead either.

I’m not actually at a loss for words to describe this situation, but I am aware of libel definitions.

Unless something positive happens, every single one of you will walk away from your lead risk jobs with a toxic legacy that will cause harm for the rest of your possibly shortened life.

When I first approached Glencore, I expected some sort of affirmative reaction. Something like: “Crap, how did that happen, we need to do something to gauge the risk to our workers and do something about remedying that risk.” The meeting with Glencore suggested that might be the case. Except for the principal – health and hygiene who argued that Glencore were following state, national and even international safety standards and guidelines, and there was nothing more that needed to be done.

Okay, I can understand the bind he’s in, the regulatory maze and the sheer frustration of changing established procedures. But it couldn’t be any more frustrating than what I’ve gone through, and I’m not a paid employee responsible for the health and safety of Glencore workers.

But I carried on, telling them about XRF measurement of bone lead and therefore lead burden in the body and a way (chelation) to remove the lead if needful.

I gave them that information, offered to work with them, pro bono, to put together a full solution. But I couldn’t offer a total solution because it was largely a one-way communication, but there is enough there, including help offered from Purdue University for establishing the XRF measurement, for Glencore to deal with this situation fairly quickly.

If they wanted to.

I should explain that I’m not being noble or altruistic, I’m angry clear through because a relative of mine is in harm’s way in Mt Isa and no one seems to care, and then there are the children of Mt Isa. I guess I’m pretty disgusted too. What a mess.

If Glencore can’t prove that full disclosure about the health impacts of working in a lead risk environment was in fact provided, they have a bigger problem. The great pity is the repercussions of WHS violations are apt to fall on the local WHS people, not the people at head office responsible for blocking any change.

I really don’t care about someone at Glencore getting into trouble, what I really care about is creating a situation where lead workers can work in a lead risk environment safely. And their families too. Kids can be terribly impacted by lead exposure in their early years of development, and that doesn’t need to happen. IT SHOULDN’T HAPPEN.

Got that? Work and live in Mt Isa SAFELY. Sure, there are physical hazards in any industrial setting, but we know that if you’re reasonably careful they are avoidable. If you aren’t, shit happens.

But if you work in a lead risk environment, right now, the hazards are unavoidable. Why would you not want to be protected from biological hazards? If lead can be removed before it causes any harm, you can work as safely in a lead risk environment as anywhere else, maybe more so.

Lead continues to accumulate in the body, every single day you work in a lead rich environment AND that increases the risk until something breaks. Maybe not now, but years later. If you’re a mother after leaving Mt Isa, you’ll harm your child because of the lead in your body passing to your baby.

Why would you not want to avoid that harm if you could? Ultimately you have no control of the biological hazards that Glencore fails to manage, unless you can protect yourself by removing the lead that’s causing harm. Oral EDTA will most likely stop the further accumulation of lead and it’s possible it would reduce your lead burden. But there’s no way to prove anything until the body lead burden can be measured and until there is at least a simple trial to establish standard of care.

I’d like to apologies about this rant, but I’ve tried to connect with Glencore yet again and been ignored, yet again. I’m getting beyond disgusted. They either don’t care, or they’re not allowed to care. Either reason is a poor reflection on Glencore and what it stands for as far as the safety of its workers are concerned.

Tomorrow, I talk with the Resources Safety and Health people (if they’ll talk to me, which isn’t assured yet) to try and sort out this mess, so you stop being left in harm’s way.

But I haven’t given up. I’ve been told Robbie Katter, the member for Traeger, worked in the smelter in Mt Isa in his 20s when things were a bit wilder . He’s about to find out about the legacy he is carrying with him from his days at the smelter. I wonder what he’ll think.