Cassowary Coast Council on Agent Orange claims
Cassowary Coast Council’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mark Kelleher, said today that Council has no quantitative evidence of heightened cancer rates in the Innisfail area.
“If the need arose for Council to be privy to information such as this, we would be guided by the relevant state department’s statistical data and advice. Queensland Health is the relevant authority in this case” Mr Kelleher said.
The Cairns-based Tropical Population Health Network stated yesterday that there is no credible evidence in the claims made last week by Ms Jean Williams.
The former Johnstone Shire Council has, for the past 10-15 years carried out sampling on a weekly basis of the local water supply. CCRC continue this testing regime. However, testing which identifies dioxins in sediment is cost-prohibitive to Council at $1600 per sample.
“Therefore Council would welcome external dioxin testing of the water supply’s sediment to alleviate resident’s concerns on the Agent Orange matter,” Mr Kelleher said.
He reiterated Premier Bligh’s message yesterday that if anyone does have any concerns in relation to the matter they should contact the Environmental Protection Agency.