Living near a lead smelter: an environmental health risk assessment in Boolaroo and Argenton, New South Wales.

This paper outlines a risk assessment of a lead-contaminated residential site in Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, near the Pasminco Metals-Sulphide lead and zinc smelter. The assessment includes a hazard identification and a dose-response assessment based on recent research findings; an exposure assessment based on two interrelated indicators, soil/dust lead and blood lead; a risk characterisation; and finally, a discussion of environmental and behavioural options for the management of risk. The exposure assessment showed lead concentrations of 20 to 21,460 parts per million in soil survey samples, 23 to 35,870 parts per million in household dust, and a range of mean values for blood lead concentration of 11 micrograms/dl to 17 micrograms/dl, in four study groups. The proportions of children within these groups having blood lead concentrations of 10 micrograms/dl or greater, the current level of known health effect, ranged from 57 per cent to 85 per cent. The decision by the National Health and Medical Research Council in June 1993 to set a goal for blood lead of below 10 micrograms/dl has important implications for the definition and the management of the environmental health risk from 'living with lead' in the area assessed.