Cancer and Industrial Pollution
An ongoing investigation by the Socialist Equality Party

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First Avenue residents condemn cancer coverup

'There is a little thing called life, as well as profit'

Three residents of First Avenue and Bent Street Warrawong -- Robert Davison, Ann Cohrs and Henk Bos -- provided damning evidence about the staggering rate of cancer in their neighbourhood and the refusal of the official authorities to investigate.

Illness forced Davison to testify via video. He is one of eight local residents who since 1989 have died or are dying of cancer within a 100-metre radius in the two streets. Among them are four victims of rare oesophageal cancer, including Cohrs' late mother, Betty Woolmai.

First Avenue and Bent Street are typical of the Port Kembla-Warrawong area. They are surrounded on several sides by heavy fume-emitting industry -- the BHP steelworks, just 1 km away, the Port Kembla copper smelter and the Brambles road freight depot, which was built below Davison's back fence.

Taking a lead from Melissa Cristiano, Robert Davison, 68, a long-time reader of Workers News, initially raised his concerns about the cancer deaths in his street by giving interviews to the Illawarra Mercury, the Fairfax-owned Wollongong daily, and the local TV stations.

However these outlets censored his story, deleting all references to Brambles, BHP and Southern Copper. Moreover, the head of the Illawarra Public Health Unit, Dr Victoria Westley-Wise immediately declared that the cancers were "coincidences" not worth investigating. She claimed there were millions of streets like First Avenue throughout Australia.

Despite being in considerable pain from advanced oesophageal and liver cancer, Davison was determined to make a statement to the Workers Inquiry.

He has lived at No. 24 First Avenue since 1948, working continuously in the Port Kembla area, as a motor mechanic and a taxi driver. His wife died of cancer, as well as many of his neighbours.

"The most likely cause of our illnesses is the nearby BHP steelworks, the Port Kembla copper smelter and the Brambles freight yard behind my house," he told the inquiry.

"Brambles and Southern Copper were the worst for the fumes they created in the years I have lived here. In the mornings the Brambles trucks would blanket the area with diesel fumes, and when the copper smelter was in operation, the fumes would burn your chest. A lot of people had problems.

"I used to have to keep the house closed up, but you could still smell diesel in the house. In the mornings too, the white fibro weatherboard homes like mine would be covered in black soot from the steelworks...

"The EPA didn't do anything for years. I used to ring them when Southern Copper was choking people here. An hour or so later the fumes would stop, but you already had them in your belly. On some occasions, I have ached for two days after breathing fumes from Southern Copper -- my lungs felt like they were burning.

"The scientists must know what is in those emissions. You wouldn't think that the government would allow it. There is a little thing called life, as well as profit -- and a lot of people are losing their lives.

"On some houses, the damage from acid fumes is so visible that Southern Copper was forced to put new concrete paths in, replace the roofs, re-cover the tiles and re-paint cars. I didn't realise fumes could do that. If that was the damage, what were the fumes doing to human bodies?

"Dr Westley-Wise's comment that the high level of cancer cases in Warrawong is a coincidence is laughable. It just seems too many in one place, doesn't it? If every cancer case was declared, I don't think she would be game to say anything like that.

"We need to know what has been killing so many people. Everyone is inclined to think about how this society operates, with the capitalists and the monopolies, but most don't pursue it. Now something has to be done."

Ann Cohrs explained that after Davison publicly raised the alarm, she began to re-examine what had happened to her mother.

"I did some homework and found out how many people live in Warrawong. It works out that oesophageal cancer is 10 times higher than average in this area. I thought it was time that the medical authorities investigated the problem -- but the Illawarra Public Health Unit ended up finding that the results were just a coincidence.

"To this day, they have not answered my phone calls and correspondence.

"There is a definite cover-up by the medical profession and the industry. It's very common in Bent St that people would wake up smelling the fumes, and find their cars covered with muck from the industry. I've had an irritating cough all my life and I've still got it.

"The Health Unit and the government don't want to investigate because they don't want to find something related to the industry here."

Henk Bos, a roads and construction engineer, has lived several doors up from Robert Davison for three years. He testified that when he moved in he found the plants dying from airborne contamination.

"The main residue comes from BHP. At night time you see the chimneys belching out sulphur. You can also see the atmosphere getting heavier and heavier and eventually, the fumes fall to the ground."

Then, Bos said, he began digging a driveway and found three layers of waste landfill. "The soil in First Avenue is not natural. It's all mixed in together -- there is gritty sand, gravel, road metals, cement and very fine brick and crushed rock...

"The government says there is nothing wrong in First Avenue -- but that is not true. They know what really exists here but they don't want to do anything about it. The Public Health Unit officials get their pay pockets every week and they don't go out to the field to do anything."

Bos concluded: "We are like work ants. The queen ant sits on the throne and we do everything, even though without us, they would have nothing."

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