Who am I and why am I writing this blog.

My name is Ulrich Mack and my email address is umack@tpg.com.au. I live in Brisbane, Queensland.

I’ve been interested in lead for a long time. When I left medical research to go into IT because the pay was so poor I was barely housing and feeding my family, I didn’t lose my interest in medical biochemistry. It became a sometimes interest because IT turned out to be a full-time and almost all-consuming job. Then I finally retired and it took a few years to realise that self gratification is all fine and good, but I was bored. There’s nothing more relaxing than sailing a boat, but the intellectual stimulation just isn’t there.

I’d read about the tragedy in Flint, Michigan, when official incompetence led to the population of Flint getting lead poisoning because of water contamination, but while the circumstances were interesting it was in the US. Then the news of lead-contaminated water at Yarrabah cropped up. From that point on I spent a LOT of time learning everything I could about the effects of lead in children. But it wasn’t until I came across a book by a Canadian mother with lead-affected twins that things started to get close and personal. Thanks in part to a mini-review by Gemma Daley (Pathology Queensland) I came to realise the extent of the problem of lead in Queensland and how lead can blight the future of children.

That’s powerful stuff when you start to realise that our government does essentially nothing to avoid the outcomes of lead poisoning. It becomes even more urgent when you come to grips with the severity of the problem, particularly in children.

I’ve had the luxury of something I’ve never had before, except maybe when I shut myself away from my family to write my PhD thesis. I have the time to spend to read a multitude of clinical and scientific papers, and start to grasp the enormity of the many awful effects that lead has on our health. And then there were the devastating effects on some children exposed to lead.

I had two choices, put it all down to academic interest and get back to a real life, or see whether an old fart can still make a difference in the world.

Well here I am. A thorn in the side of medical bureaucracy and mining companies like Glencore that don’t give a damn about their workers, and I’m determined to educate the people affected by lead about what they are facing. I’m sure I’ve probably got a sick sense of humour, but this is fun.