TAS: Woodchip piles could be a health risk: Doctor
By Don Woolford
HOBART, April 9 AAP - Huge woodchip stockpiles on the Burnie wharf could carry dangerousLegionella bacteria, a Hobart physician said today.
Dr Frank Nicklason said an urgent independent assessment of the health risks of thestockpile was needed.
Dr Nicklason is also a spokesman for Doctors for Forests, a political group formedlast year to oppose many forestry practices in Tasmania.
He said, however, he was raising the woodchip risk as a health rather than a forestry issue.
His call for an investigation was backed by Burnie-based Maritime Union of Australiastate secretary Mike Wickham.
The woodchip mountains are infamous in Burnie, because when the wind is from the northtiny chips and wood dust are blown over the northwest coast city.
Dr Nicklason said he was not expert enough to quantify the health risks from the pile.
If the bottom of the piles was undisturbed for some years, however, the material therewould be like compost or potting mix.
Microbiologists had told him it would almost certainly contain Legionella.
Gardeners were warned of the dangers of Legionella, fungal disease, asthma and dermatitisif compost and potting mix weren't handled carefully.
"The elderly, those with chronic lung conditions and people with weakened immune systemsare at most risk from Legionella bacteria, along with certain fungal organisms which cancause allergic lung conditions," Dr Nicklason said.
Mr Wickham said the bottoms of the stockpiles hadn't been touched for six to seven years.
He said some of his members, who didn't handle the piles but worked beside them, hadcomplained of strange bites and respiratory problems.
He had gathered a jar of material from the bottom of a pile and would have it analysed.
Last year Burnie had a case of Legionnaire's disease, which is contracted from Legionellabacteria.
While it was suspected to have come from the airconditioning of an office building,Dr Nicklason said it could have entered the system as wind-blown debris from the stockpile.
AAP dw/ldj/sb
KEYWORD: WOODCHIP
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