Doctor warned of health risk

CRAIG SIMCOX/The Dominion Post

HEALTHY CHOICE: Katrina Aranui moved from near the Exide plant in Petone. `My kids were always sick. My doctor said, Is it worth staying?' The battery recycler is facing tough penalties for its latest illegal discharge.

Relevant offers

Katrina Aranui has raised her young family in the shadow of the Exide plant - but moved when her doctor warned against children growing up near an industrial lead-emitting factory.

"It's the kids that have to suffer. I moved because of my daughter," she said yesterday.

Two-year-old Biani was born with ear deformities and her older sister, Cleeshaye, 9, had constant health problems. The family lived in Waione St, about 200 metres from the factory.

When Miss Aranui learned that Exide's lead dust posed a potential health risk to young children, she asked her GP in Petone, Ian Milne, whether her daughters' problems might be linked.

"My doctor said he wouldn't rule it out and ... that we were in a high-risk area.

"My kids were always sick. We had a young family and my doctor just said, `Is it worth staying?"'

Miss Aranui, who moved her family last month, said neighbours with young families also wanted to move, but many were on low incomes, living in state homes, so had few options.

Dr Milne said he had treated several families living near the plant. "I might have said, `Well, it's perhaps not the greatest place to be bringing up your children.'

"It's reasonable advice, given the concerns we have about the Exide plant. Those are concerns that I share. We know lead's toxic, and if there's lead coming down out of the sky, then it's going to get into the soil, and kids and young infants put soil in their mouths."

- © Fairfax NZ News