Trading Covid for Cancer

I keep seeing people say Daniel Andrews is putting our health as top priority. That the lockdown, the movement restrictions, the ring around Melbourne, heck our civil liberties smashed, are all for our benefit. But I am cynical. All I see is short term political thinking.

They say a week is a long time in politics. With the 24 hour news cycle, events come and go, and we tend to forget major issues 3 or so months down the track. Enquiries and reviews are often trapped in this cycle, just look a the Audior Generals website to see what we are missing. This is honestly why I feel the hotel inquiry was set up, a short term plan to push the news down the road, to be hidden by the next news cycle. Except it keeps coming out with more and more damning material. Sutton now needing to clarify his testimony is telling. But it means that short term thinking didn’t work.

I keep saying the hotel environment (not the “Porkies” nonsense) is the fault of the government. Try setting up a business without inductions, safety manuals, operating procedures, and health and saftey protocols. Good luck when work safe visits. Its the business owner, not the staff (including contractors), that is accountable. And in this instance, that is the Victorian Government. Another short term plan, if it even was one, stuffed up. A stuff up all Victorian’s pay the price for. We all have to stay locked down to beat this. And yet if The Age is reporting correctly, that a case worker told a family it was okay to leave quarantine while still positive, DHHS can’t even manage that.

We have every right to question, and be cynical.

We have every right to doubt Dan and his whole government, and it should stem back to PFAS soil.

Transurban needs a fix on where to dispose of contaminated soil. Despite the EES and other documents flagging its existance, its quite clear its us, our community, being asked to solve a problem that was not ours at all to begin with. We were not the bidders. We are not making the mega bucks. But its us, our kids, and the generations to come that carry the risk of this soil. The Victorian government is making it much easier to dump it near our homes, waterways, farms and schools. Sure we won’t see issues straight way, as it takes time to build up in the body. But we only need look at Fiskville to see what can happen. Long term pain, short term not much. Short term thinking once again. Short term thinking that is certainly not putting our health first.

Its not just cancer too. This stuff impacts on our immune systems. At a time when we need them as strong as ever, that soil weakens it.

Heck lets copy and paste from the American EPA website;

There is evidence that exposure to PFAS can lead to adverse health outcomes in humans. If humans,  or animals, ingest PFAS (by eating or drinking food or water than contain PFAS), the PFAS are absorbed, and can accumulate in the body. PFAS stay in the human body for long periods of time. As a result, as people get exposed to PFAS from different sources over time, the level of PFAS in their bodies may increase to the point where they suffer from adverse health effects.

Studies indicate that PFOA and PFOS can cause reproductive and developmental, liver and kidney, and immunological effects in laboratory animals. Both chemicals have caused tumors in animal studies. The most consistent findings from human epidemiology studies are increased cholesterol levels among exposed populations, with more limited findings related to:

– infant birth weights,

– effects on the immune system,

– cancer (for PFOA), and

– thyroid hormone disruption (for PFOS).

https://www.epa.gov/pfas/basic-information-pfas#health

That is something I don’t want my kids dealing with. Hell I will selfishly say I don’t want to deal with it either. And I shouldn’t have too. Transurban knew the deal, they should be disposing of it as per their contracts. To put the burden on us is just crap. And for Dan and the Labor Government to be doing this is just disgusting.Its highly likely that it is not going to Wyndham Vale. But in Bacchas Marsh, that puts our food, the Werribee River, and anything near it, all at risk. Yet that is what is happening.

The Victorian EPA statements have been as weak as water, and fly in the face of Labors comments from 2017 (a time before it was their issue). Cynicism given all that makes more sense to me.

Beat covid, get cancer. Thats not much of a deal, but thats what is on the cards.

We do need to keep safe, and follow health advice, after all what choice do we have. But we can certainly be angry. We can certainly not forget how we ended up here as well as the betrayal of our community to help bail out big business. And we certainly should question the decisions of a government that seems more interested in PR than the consequences of their actions.