MARSHA STEJSKAL
Rosebery residents are in a horrific situation.
Their Properties are contaminated with HIGH levels of heavy metals such as Arsenic, lead and Cadmium.
9 people have came back with heavy metal poisoning, (Arsenic, lead, cadmium,nickel, manganese and copper). All residents are very ill.
EPA and DHHS are denying everything
For more information please look up: http://www.sosheavymetals.com/
The Rosebery residents are disability pensioners and are in very poor health; basically they are all stuck in their toxic homes, waiting to die.
Their houses are now worthless and they can no longer sell them, and to prove The Department of Health is wrong they need large amount of money and the help of various experts.
I would like to plead for financial help to pay experts so we are able to proof DHHS, EPA and Toxicolgist final report is incorrect and not proper scientific methods were used.
Why I think it is cover up, prepared by Marsha Stejskal
1: We had a lot of meetings with the mine (OZ Minerals) and Tasmanian Department of Mines thought about re-locating us on the quiet side; then they declined.
2: Tasmania Police came to take statement to find out if we or an “enemy” had poisoned our yards with heavy metals.
3: EPA ordered Kay Seltitzas to apologize to mines (Oz Minerals) for asking help and approaching them in the first place.
4: DHHS opened an investigation when one person came back copper poisoned.
5: A lot of talk about re-mediation that never happened.
6: Nobody would find out where the seepage problem is coming from – everyone ignored everytime I asked about getting hydrologist and geologist to do investigation.
7: I was told by (an) Environment Officer that DHHS will move heaven and earth if anyone came back poisoned.
8: DHHS visited and wanted to divide us all up and then they searched my home and they had a Tasmania police sitting in the car outside present around corner.
9: DHHS Dr XX XX, MD rang Kay and told her she is dying of cancer and he must go into her house when they had never done any testing on Kay to find out if she has cancer or not.
10: DHHS engaged Dr XX, a North-West GP who was supposed to be independent doctor for us.
11: DHHS told Kay and I that Dr XX is a toxicologist from Brisbane and we must go to Somerset to see him to get blood and urine tests done. We found out later, that Dr XX only has an ‘interest’ in toxicology and that he works in Launceston hospital. No blood tests or urine tests were conducted that day – Kay had proctology examination.
12: Kay went to Launceston directed by DHHS to get some tests done. Kay ended up sitting for a week away from exposure and then they conducted tests. First they did urine, and then much later blood tests. Kay never received her blood test results; they went missing.
13: I went to Launceston under direction of DHHS. I was told I would have to fill forms out when I got there; no forms where there for me to fill. I had troubles getting a urine bottle organized from Launceston hospital as they did not know what was going on. Eventually managed to get the urine test done but I left Launceston after few days without getting blood tests done and later on I was sent to get blood tests done in Burnie which is absolutely irrelevant to the 24 hour urine test.
14: DHHS failed to release my urine test results, after 1 month I managed to collect it from pathology without consent of DHHS only to find out that my cadmium level was so high that pathology recommended me to repeat the test straight away. It was a bit too late for that; no fault on my part.
15: DHHS blamed the yellow lids on the urine bottle for contaminating my urine with cadmium. yellow lids do NOT contain cadmium on a specimen jars.!
16: DHHS say I could not have been poisoned with cadmium because it did not fit in with the blood as blood was normal, but DHHS took my blood 4 or 5 days after my urine tests were done and I was away from exposure [Rosebery] during the 4 – 5 days.
17: DHHS is supposed to take one blood test immediately before urine testing, and then another blood test immediately after completion of urine testing.
18: Later I had another 24-hour urine test as did Kay and Lindsay – and all of us came back high with arsenic. On our results, the testing pathology laboratory had written ‘they froze our specimens’ so we can get it speciated later if we wished to do that.
19: DHHS wrote email saying that they are not interested in the speciation.
20: DHHS stole the frozen urine sample from laboratory to do speciation behind our backs. Only found out by accident when Kay, Lindsay and myself saved up enough money to have the speciation done. I was told by the Pathology testing laboratory that my frozen specimen is no longer there as it was taken over by DHHS.
21: After extremely long time DHHS sent Kay, Lindsay and myself a faxed piece of paper which was supposedly the results of the speciation. The method of speciation is not known. Because normal speciation is made by Mass Spectrometry – it should come with graphs and details of what kind of arsenic it is. It should go into details if for example: fish are eaten, what type, and it can distinguish from which ocean.
On the supposed speciation which we were given by DHHS is only stated that we ate fish, and we were full of Arsenobetaine. I did not eat fish, in fact I did not eat at all during the time I had my urine tests as I was feeling nauseated and nobody else did either.
22: Jamie Arnold (another victim) had high arsenic level, even higher arsenic levels than us and his specimen was never frozen at all.
23: Jamie’s daughter is pregnant and has copper poisoning – DHHS say being pregnant causes high copper levels.
24: Wonita Arnold has copper poisoning and DHHS say she must be on birth control pill (Wonita is not on the pill).
25: EPA filtered water seepage and used arithmetical and geological means on the soil samples to hide any high numbers and some of these soil samples came from our properties, and some of them from different parts of Rosebery and some of them were taken 3 km away from Rosebery in the bush.
Apparently arithmetical & geological means are not an appropriate scientific method to be used in this particular case.
26: EPA used “recreational exposure guidelines” on the seepage water, no matter that we are in the residential properties.
27: EPA used “residential soil guidelines” on my household dust samples which is totally inappropriate.
28: DHHS were not happy that we did not let them into the house to collect dust samples. (They were provided with the results of the house dust results we collected already) I can’t see any point in duplicating tests which are quiet useless to them as they don’t have the appropriate guidelines.
29: I went to Burnie Base Hospital, Emergency Admissions section when I was sick and vomiting and I was declined help because the hospital doctor contacted my GP and my GP said to them not to help me because I use the results against DHHS in court.
30: After no one would take my urine sample, I took my own and sent it to an independent analytical testing laboratory and my results came back high in arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and chromium (Cr). XX [ an Independant toxicologist that dhhs hired] disregarded results completely as he was told the analytical laboratory in Hobart had to dilute the urine to river water consistency so it would go through the machine. XX came to the conclusion that it was actually river water. !!!!!!
31: DHHS say “do not interpret your own results, you are not qualified to do”…? yet Priestly managed to do a human health assessment including interpreting the results – without any medical qualification, without an independent medical report as Dr. XX took off after the first test results and actually speaking without any medical input whatsoever.
32: Only conclusion to which XX arrived in his report where two recommendations:
A: No biological testing.
we are not allowed to show anybody the results of the tests which were used as part of this investigation and also if we contacted any medical practitioner we are not allowed to mention heavy metals, and
B: no environmental testing was to be undertaken whatsoever.
33: In 1995 families have been relocated because of poisoning and DHHS say “they have no record of such event”, however, it was published in The Advocate and The Examiner newspapers in 1995.
XX is aware of the 1995 case as I notified him personally only to be told by him it is completely normal to be poisoned by lead in Rosebery – yet he ignores given information in his report.
34: DHHS wrote in Final Report with over 6 times special precautions to take to minimize exposure risk.
For example: (1) vacuum walls and soft furniture, (2) wash window sills, (3) change soil and sandpit (bring clean soil from elsewhere) (4) do not let pets drink water seepage, (5) do not let pets and people track dirt inside. Why if everything is fine??
35: Lindsay Phillips is being ignored and has not been to Launceston in January (2009) as promised by DHHS to get some testing done. Nothing was done for him by DHHS ever! DHHS offered me special treatment in a Hobart hospital for a psychology assessment and to see neurologist.
36: XX Public Health Officer, Dr XX organized me to see counsellor so that she would be able to help me. She never offered me any help whatsoever and she always wanted to know my “next step” all the time to keep for records and then gave me a paper for me to sign so they can get information released to them from for example: Centrelink, doctor.
I did not see any point in this.
37: EPA never managed to find the cause of the problems or origins of the seepage water.
(What the water seepage actually is?) but they were absolutely sure it has nothing to do with the mining operation. There is an open-cut mine located 400 meters away from our properties and 100 metes higher up. The open-cut mine is generating a lot of acid mine drainage and air-borne dust pollution. This open-cut mine was constructed, according to the EPA, without any environmental impact study whatsoever.
In the time when the open-cut mine was constructed, the need for environmental impact study was already in place.
Considering the open-cut mine is located in a residential area only 50 meters from inhabited houses it is absolutely beyond comprehension
38: EPA say the fish [eels and trouts]in Pieman River died because they were already dead when they were dumped into the river as they had to spend few hours in quarantine which consisted of leaving them without water for few hours. I would say dumping a truckload of dead fish into the Pieman River consists of absolute negligence and pollution which should attract huge fine from EPA.
Only thing that is a bit puzzling was that where the dead fish were found, the only access to the Pieman River is dirt narrow four-wheel drive access only. So only a magician could push big truck of dead fish in there.
