Evidence of passive chemical exposure from agricultural poisons is observable on the streets throughout Dubbo and Narromine with significant die-back in vegetation that is causing permanent harm to the local environment and silently poisoning the community at large.
Members of the local community were joined by Greens MP Sue Higginson outside Dubbo Base Hospital on Thursday 30 April, calling for the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to commence baseline evidence gathering to establish the likely threat to human health as a result of passive chemical exposure.
Greens MP and spokesperson for Agriculture and the Environment Sue Higginson said,
"The sheer scale of the evidence that agricultural poisons are present in Dubbo and Narromine is shocking, and worse, this has been going on for decades. There is barely a street in Dubbo that doesn't have a tree dying from the top down as these chemicals blow across town from season to season,"
"It was only because of community pressure that the EPA started air quality monitoring in more rural areas around the Central West - and those tests have demonstrated widespread detections of banned chemicals and other chemicals that affect human development, cancer rates and reproductive health,"
"It's time for the EPA to act in the interests of community health and safety in the towns of the Central West. We have a right to know the chemicals that are settling on the trees and streets of Dubbo and Narromine, and the concentrations that people are being exposed to,"
"This is not just a local issue. The knock on effects of the entire Central West being exposed to invisible poisons is harmful for our food systems, water health, and the natural world that is essential for humans to live and thrive,"
"Narromine Shire Council has already passed a motion requesting air quality monitoring in Narromine, and Dubbo should ask the EPA for the same. We can see there are chemicals falling in these communities, so these communities have a right to know how they are being exposed,"
