FEDERAL Member for Paterson Meryl Swanson has asked questions of the Health Minister to explain the ramifications of an international finding on a firefighting chemical that has contaminated land and water around Williamtown RAAF base.
The Stockholm Convention’s Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee this week adopted a “draft risk profile” for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which says: “PFOA, its salts and related compounds are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic to animals including humans” and that “PFOA and its salts and related compounds are likely, as a result of their long-range environmental transport, to lead to adverse human health impacts and/or environmental effects such that global action is warranted”.
Health guidelines in Australia are that “there is currently no consistent evidence that exposure to PFOS and PFOA causes adverse human health effects”.
“I have written to Sussan Ley to ask whether this international finding will have any effect on Australian guidelines,” Ms Swanson said.
“I have also asked her whether this has any effect on health risks in relation to the Williamtown community.”