NEWS  RELEASE

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Limestone Avenue Campbell A.C.T. RO. Box 225 Dickson A.C.T. 2602 Tel. 48 4257 (Media Office) 47 8996 (After hrs.) Cables Coresearch Telex 62003 P.R. No. 19

HEAVY METALS IN SOILS AND PLANTS IN

PORT PIRIE AREA OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

(Statement by the Minister for Science and Consumer Affairs  the Honourable Clyde R. Cameron, M.P.)

Port Pirie (SA) householders who raise the acidity of the soil in

their gardens could increase the level of heavy metal traces in vegetables

grown there.

The Minister for Science and Consumer Affairs, Mr. Clyde R. Cameron,

said this today.

He said CSIRO in partnership with the South Australian Department of

Public Health were collecting and analysing the vegetables for traces of lead,

cadmium and zinc. .

Studies begun last year by CSIRO of farming land outside Port Pirie

revealed that soils and plants in the area are contaminated to varying

extents by these metals.

However, indications based on data so far available are that the levels

of contamination are not dangerous.

Mr. Cameron said the source of the contamination was the Broken Hill

Associated Smelters works in Port Pirie.

But it was probable that most of the fallout occurred between 1889 when

the smelter first went into operation and 1925-30 when stricter fume emission

controls were introduced.

He said preliminary findings dealing with lead contamination of areas

outside Port Pirie are published in the October issue of "Search" - the

journal of ANZAAS (Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement

of Science).

These were made by a team of scientists led by Dr. K.G. Tiller of the

Adelaide-headquartered CSIRO Division of Soils, which was also about to produce

reports on cadmium and zinc contamination of the area.

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.  Details of the studies, covering 5,000 square kilometres of agricultural

and grazing land outside Port Pirie, had been made available to the South

Australian Department of Public Health and the South Australian Department

of Environment and Conservation.

These would be supplemented by the results of current investigations

expected to be finished next year. This includes a joint investigation to

be conducted during the next 12 months with the South Australian Department

of Public Health on vegetables grown in back gardens of Port Pirie.

As soon as sufficient data have been collected and assessed, the findings

will be published.

Mr. Cameron said CSIRO began research on heavy metal contamination of

the environment in the southern Flinders Ranges and adjacent areas in South

Australia in February 1974.

"In August 1974 once preliminary results obtained by analysing soil

samples with atomic absorption spectrometry techniques were available, CSIRO

alerted the State authorities that heavy metal concentrations in the area

were higher than normal," he said.

"Since then, CSIRO has worked in close consultation with the State

authorities and Broken Hill Associated Smelters."

Mr. Cameron said CSIRO has had many years of experience in studying

the behaviour and distribution of trace elements in soils,, mainly in relation

to their availability to agriculturally important plants.

"The current work of Dr. Tiller's team stems from this broad interest,

but is particularly concerned with elements that are toxic if they are consumed

in sufficient amounts in food," he said.

"The concentrations of lead, cadmium and zinc in soils around Port Pirie

are similar to those found around smelters overseas.

"At Port Pirie the main period of contamination appears to have been

in the early decades of smelting operations. Ã¢ÂÂ ..>.Â·.Ã¢ÂÂ

"To assess the significance of this contamination for human health,

Dr. Tiller's team collected and analysed samples of wheat grain and vegetables

from areas outside Port Pirie city. .

"All samples of vegetables collected had levels of lead, cadmium and

zinc that were within the normal range found in commercial vegetables grown

elsewhere. .

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"And all levels of these three metals were below the internationally

accepted maximum permissible levels."

Mr. Cameron said that wheat grain from areas further than 10 kilometres

from the smelter had levels well within the normal range.

However, some grain collected within 10 kilometres of the smelter had

levels above the normal range, but still below the recommended maximum.

Glasshouse experiments conducted in Adelaide using soil from around

Port Pirie showed that much of the heavy metal content of vegetables and

wheat grain grown in these soils came from the soils themselves - rather

than from air-borne contamination.

,f0n the basis of research data collected so far it seems that contamination

of soils of the farming areas around Port Pirie with lead, cadmium and zinc

does not give harmful levels of these metals in agricultural produce," he said.

"The amounts of each of these elements taken up by plants decreases

as the soil becomes more alkaline.

"A key factor in the low levels found in pfoduce grown in the Port Pirie

area is the alkalinity (around pH 8) of most local farm soils."

Mr. Cameron said this factor could be particularly significant in the

current studies involving home-grown vegetables in the city itself where

some keen gardeners could inadvertently make soil more acidic.

"Anything done to reduce appreciably their alkalinity could increase

the levels of heavy metals in produce grown in the area," he said.

"CSIRO in partnership with the South Australian Department of Public

Health is collecting and analysing these vegetables."

CANBERRA 2 October 1975

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