Cancer expert heads poison investigation

An expert on cancer is to head the latest investigation into the harmful effects of chemical sprays used in the Kimberley in the past.

However, former Agriculture Protection Board (APB) workers are not impressed.

World-renowned cancer expert Professor Bruce Armstrong will head a five-member medical panel to undertake a thorough, scientific analysis of potential links between chemical spraying and long-term illness among former APB workers in the Kimberley.

Agriculture Minister Kim Chance said the panel, promised by the State Government as part of its response to the Kimberley Chemical Use Review, met for the first time last week.

He said it would provide an interim report to the State Government in three months.

Health Minister Bob Kucera said there were few people in the country better qualified to examine the issue than Professor Armstrong - a Professor of Public Health and Associate Dean of Population Health and Health Services Research at the University of Sydney.

Professor Armstrong is also a former Commissioner of Health in WA.

Other members of the panel are: occupational health physician Dr Robert Kenyon; clinical toxicologist Dr Geoff Duggan; consultant general physician Dr Peter Greenberg; and occupational epidemiologist Dr Tim Driscoll.

Mr Chance said the panel was convened in response to the Kimberley Chemical Use Review by occupational physician Dr Andrew Harper.

Dr Harper's review was designed to determine whether there was a need for more detailed investigation and said: "The Review is not a scientific investigation designed to test specific questions of disease causation such as the relationship between herbicides and ill health."

However, a group of former APB workers has described the inquiry as a waste of money.

The group's spokesman Carl Drysdale said the research indicated a link between the spray and illness among workers, and it was time for action.

"It's just ongoing forever and ever what they need to do is face up to this and do what they said they were going to do, which is to give immediate health care, pay the cost of health care and where appropriate give compensation to people and even make apologies," he said.