Saturday, June 10, 2017
The
day after a public meeting to oppose development on a toxic site in a
northern suburb of Melbourne, the developer put it up for sale on a real
estate site, without any mention of the contamination. In Victoria,
there is no legal requirement for the sellers of contaminated land, to
indicate that a site is contaminated.
Local residents packed the Fawkner Senior Citizens Centre on May 11 to hear speakers about the issues around this toxic site.
Several of the older residents who attended the public meeting have
family members who died of cancer that they suspect is linked to the
operation of chemical company Nufarm on this site from 1957 to 1974. A
cancer cluster was discovered in Fawkner and on the other side of Merri
Creek at the Lakeside Secondary College.
The site was heavily contaminated with dioxins until it received a partial clean-up in the early 1990s.
The Western Region Environment Centre’s Harry van Moorst explained to
the public meeting that dioxins are particularly dangerous: “They are
carcinogenic. They create tumours. They possibly cause genetic mutation.
They are also seen as possible teratogens, causing malformation of the
embryo and they have massive effect on immune systems, central nervous
systems and diabetes.
“Dioxins are one of those things that really affect your system as a
whole. As a result it makes you vulnerable to a whole lot of other
diseases and illnesses that aren’t necessarily attributed to dioxin but
are attributable to the impact they’ve had on your immune system and
nervous system. It makes you extremely vulnerable.”
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