New Book Exposes Government Cover Up on Cancer Cluster

Walter Pless image of Wentworth Park as it is today

Tomorrow’s Children, the newly-published memoir by Poppy Lopatniuk, will be launched by Judy Tierney and Professor Rob White on Friday 6th July.

Mrs Lopatniuk has struggled to get any politicians or Government departments interested in conducting a proper health investigation into the cancer cluster around the Old Howrah tip site on the eastern shore of Hobart. As she points out, an epidemiological study would only involve the couple of hundred people who lived around and on the tip site during its lifespan and just after its closure. Yet she has spent over fifteen years trying to get the Health Department and Clarence Council to take her own research and evidence seriously.

The book is more than a whistleblower’s story. It is a memoir of a happy childhood in north-west Tasmania and the living of an interesting, compassionate, and loving life. It is a reminder that Tasmania in the past has generously taken in refugees after World War Two and made them welcome. It is a story of neighbourly concern and kindness. And it is a reminder that public health and community safety issues need to be the number one priority for the Department of Health’s Public and Environmental Health Service in Tasmania.

In the case of the Wentworth Park Landfill, the danger from toxic contamination now appears to have passed but those who accepted dishonest assurances from the Department of Health, Council and other Government departments in the 1960s and 1970s have paid a high price. It is shocking that almost every household around the tipsite in those years has suffered serious health issues including cancers and auto-immune diseases which have taken lives and left others with chronic health problems.

Other public and environmental health investigations in more recent years in Tasmania have followed the same pattern of flawed investigations as has occurred at Wentworth Park.

Tomorrow’s Children is the record of a brave woman’s struggle to get answers on a vital public health issue. At the age of 85 when many people are taking it easy Poppy Lopatniuk is still asking that our politicians and public servants be held accountable. She deserves our admiration and support.

ABC personality Judy Tierney has written an excellent introduction to the book and has taken a continuing interest in this issue. Judy Tierney and Professor Rob White from the University of Tasmania will jointly launch the book.

Tomorrow’s Children is now available from most Hobart bookshops and will be available for signing by the author at the book launch on the 6th July at 5.30pm at the Hobart Bookshop, 22 Salamanca Square.