There has been some news coverage in Australia recently on lead levels in children's blood from industrial emissions. The main towns of interest are
Mt Isa in Queensland with the Mt Isa Mines facility owned by Xstrata, and
Port Pirie in South Australia with the Zinfex smelter owned by OZ Minerals following the Zinifex merger with Oxiana.
New England Journal of Medicine paper on child blood lead levels and IQ This paper states "Blood lead concentrations, even those below 10 g per deciliter, are inversely associated with children's IQ scores at three and five years of age, and associated declines in IQ are greater at these concentrations than at higher concentrations."
Some recent press:
Brisbane TimesABCThe AustralianTo get a perspective on comparative heavy metal emissions I created a KML collection of raw emissions. I think this goes some of the way to explaining why there are such problems in Mt Isa and Port Pirie. A little more pollution control and emissions reduction would be a very good thing.
Link to post Link to downloadI haven't attached the download directly to this post as I am trying to avoid duplicate placemarks appearing in the community layer.