Energy Efficiency

The Tasmanian Greens today accused Health Minister Lara Giddings of failing in her duty of care to the Tasmanian community and especially the residents of Hobart, after the Minister yesterday made a series of ridiculous and illogical claims about Triazine herbicide contamination events in Hobart’s drinking water supply.

Greens spokesperson (Tim Morris MP) said ‘it is a disgraceful day when the Health Minister stands up for those who have been concealing herbicide detections in Hobart’s drinking water, and queried why these detections are being hidden from the people consuming the water if, as the Minister asserts, the herbicide detections ‘present no risk to public health’.

Mr Morris also said when water contamination events occur, the contamination level of the water changes throughout the event and nobody can deduce the peak level of contamination from a single sample.

‘No person can say how much herbicide has been present in Hobart’s drinking water prior to these tests revealing contamination, because no-one knows whether the sample was taken at the beginning, the middle, or the end of the contamination event’ said Mr Morris. ‘how can our Health Minister say that there is no risk to human health when the authorities involved, including her colleague Water Minister David Llewellyn, appear to have actively concealed the contamination of Hobart’s water from the people of Hobart?

If it’s not a problem, why are they hiding it ?’

He went on to say ‘the Health Minister’s focus on cancer alone is also ridiculous and illogical; concerns have been raised about a wide range of adverse health effects other than cancer that are caused by exposure to Triazine chemicals, including disruption of the human endocrine system, damaging genetic changes in human cells, and the chemical castration of frogs; this event was only revealed because of questioning by the Tasmanian Greens in the Parliament, and we will continue to pursue the Bartlett Government on this matter until we see a ban on the Triazine group of herbicides’.