SARAH Bradley, the district judge who shocked the nation when she declined to jail nine males found guilty of raping a 10-year-old girl, had been extensively briefed by prominent Aurukun community members on their desire for tough measures to deal with the culture of violence in their township.
Fairfax Media has been told that members of the Aurukun Justice Group — a state-funded community law-and-order consultative body — told the judge of the terrible problems that had beset the tiny Cape York community, including rampant teenage sexual promiscuity and high rates of serious juvenile crime.
Janine Chevathun, an Aurukun councillor and member of the justice group, said the committee had taken Judge Bradley out on the community boat and explained to her over several hours the levels of social dysfunction and alcohol-related crime tearing the community apart.
On Sunday morning, we packed the car up and said goodbye to the house. We found a table under some shade and had our lunch before we left to go back to Brisbane. This tree was just asking to have it's photo taken! The breeze was so refreshing! Gypsy loved sitting on the seat between Brad and I. She didnt want any kabana or her sausage but she did want the cheese we had. She would have eaten the whole block if we had let her!
A few photos of Brad at Bribie Island with Gypsy. We had such a relaxing weekend away. I wish we could have stayed for a whole week. Gypsy wasnt very impressed with the waves on the beach. She freaked out when we went near them. She really wasnt supposed to be on the beach either but we figured that she was more of a rat than a dog! The signs didnt say "No Rats"!!! I cant wait to go back again soon.
This is the house we stayed in at Bribie. Its Brad's sister's house. It is very eclectic inside! Where ever you look there are things on the walls and books all around. It really is the kind of beach house I have dreamed about. So now I have a new goal after I get a house of my own... a little cottage near the beach... possibly on Bribie. I love the feel of Bribie Island. Not too commercialised yet, it still has a country feel to it.
It is a technicality - Ritchie has signed a contract to work for the radio station Nova next year - but the impact is no less significant. "It's a new beginning for me. I don't know myself without Sally Fletcher," she said.
Since announcing her intention to quit the top-rating soap in September, Ritchie said preparations for her departure had almost overwhelmed her. "I've been trying to gather my thoughts and reflect on a few things. I feel such an intense, deep sadness.
"It's so hard to explain because on the other hand there is this overwhelming sense of excitement as well. A lot of people are joking about whether I will enjoy retirement, but I really feel like it's the beginning of something."
Ritchie will start the first day of the rest of her life with her regular workout at the gym, followed by a day of running pre-Christmas errands.
"It's a good time of the year to be leaving, because life doesn't stop. I'm [going to be] hosting Carols in the Domain, and I have a lot to get done, which is a really good thing."
The show's producers paid tribute to her on the set last night, and tonight she will be the guest of honour at a farewell party thrown by the show's cast and crew. Tomorrow night she will have a small dinner with her family.
"I didn't make the decision to leave overnight. It was something that has been, if I want to be honest, floating around in my head for years, so to finally say the words out loud and to say I was leaving was almost a relief," Ritchie said.
"On days like today I worry about getting through the day, and saying goodbye, but there is never a moment that I worry I have made the wrong decision."
The final episode for 2007, which aired last week, featured the arrival of a stranger, played by Josh Quong Tart, the word "Milco" (the name of Sally's childhood imaginary friend) written in the sand and an on-air promotion campaign which promises to solve "a 20-year-old mystery".
For Ritchie, the link between her first and final storylines in the show is serendipitous. "When I first sat down with the producers , I was really pleased, not only with the way I leave the show, but all the stories which lead up to the last days of Sally Fletcher in Summer Bay," she said.
"Revisiting the past has given me an opportunity, as an actress, to tie up a few loose ends and say goodbye in a funny sort of way."
Ritchie's final episode will air next April.
December 13, 2007 07:00am
THE family of a 10-year-old gang-rape victim have revealed they had warned child safety authorities she would be attacked if taken out of a Cairns foster home and returned to their remote Aboriginal community of Aurukun.
Amid a continuing public outcry over the Queensland Department of Child Safety's failure to protect the girl and a Queensland District Court judge's controversial decision not to jail her attackers, her family has told of a community in crisis and "a little girl who has had the light turned off on her life".
They expressed outrage at the sentence the nine males received, and claim some of the offenders had first raped the girl when she was seven.
"She should never have been allowed to come back from foster care while those boys were still here. We told that to welfare. (Some of) those boys had raped her in the past," the girl's mother said.
In October, judge Sarah Bradley decided not to record convictions against six teenage attackers and gave three others, aged 17, 18 and 26, suspended sentences over the rape.
The sentences will be appealed and dozens of other sex abuse cases from the cape reviewed after the lenient sentences in the gang-rape case were revealed.
The prosecutor in the case, Steve Carter - who described the rape as "a form of childish experimentation" of which the victim was a willing participant - has also been stood down pending an internal investigation.
The girl's aunt said she was deeply offended by Mr Carter's claim that the victim had consented to the rape, and said suggestions underage sex was a fact of life in cape communities was abhorrent.
"That's not right. It's not traditional to have sex without parents' consent. Something is not right. She is a little girl who has had the light turned off on her life," she said.
Her uncle, the family patriarch, said sexual assaults, family violence and drugs had become so bad in the community he would support a Northern Territory-style intervention.
"The violence happens all the time. Something needs to be done, we shouldn't have to live like this," he said.
Cape York Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson last night described the case as "just the tip of the iceberg" of dysfunction in indigenous communities.
Mr Pearson blasted the notion that indigenous children taken into care and placed with non-indigenous foster carers were "another Stolen Generation" - as social workers in the Aurukun case believed.
He said that where children's welfare was under threat, the placement should be "one of safety, whether it is whitefellas or blackfellas".
"Those child protection practices that have sought to place Aboriginal children exclusively with Aboriginal carers have resulted in a great deal of harm for the individual children under care," Mr Pearson said.
"This is a case of children in urgent need of protection. As long as Aboriginal society is so dysfunctional that we have to take children into care and protection, we should never hear people bleat about some Stolen Generation.
"Today children on communities are living in dysfunctional situations where their welfare is under threat. There should be no hesitation in taking them out of those threatening circumstances and placing them with carers - whitefellas or blackfellas."
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has vowed to take radical action and work with federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin if the review of sex abuse cases finds systemic problems.
"What's not clear until we look at all of these cases is, is it a systemic issue where the standard of justice is somehow different or lower in these communities?" Ms Bligh said.
"Or is this a one-off aberration from one particular officer?"
The girl's family speak to her once a week by satellite link because she is housed in a secret location in north Queensland.
"She sleeps with the light on. She gets jumpy when they get new case workers," her uncle said.
The uncle said no authority had contacted the family since the story was reported. He first heard about it on the radio, and he welcomed the opportunity to speak to the media.
Authorities had neglected to inform the family the case was being heard in October in a courthouse less than 100m from the victim's former home.
For 72 unforgettable minutes yesterday, a Brisbane jury watched a mother kill her own child.
A hidden camera concealed in an air-conditioning vent above nine-month-old Bray Metius' cot at Brisbane's Mater Children's Hospital captured his dying moments at the hands of his mother, Candaneace, 21, who smothered him with her hands and body on October 21, 2004.
Metius, now 24, admits suffocating the infant, but has pleaded not guilty to murder on the grounds of her unsound mental state at the time. She is expected to argue diminished responsibility during her Supreme Court trial, which began this week.
The macabre surveillance footage, played to the court yesterday, shows Metius cradling Bray in her arms before placing him back in his cot and covering his nose and mouth with her hands until he stops moving.
She is also seen repeatedly tampering with an oxygen saturation machine attached to the baby to measure the amount of oxygen in his bloodstream.
Crown prosecutors say Metius deliberately disabled an audible alarm on the machine which would have alerted nursing staff to Bray's suffocation.
The youngster was revived once during the one-hour and 12-minute ordeal, but died after Metius was filmed laying on top of him.
The court was told a relative later overheard Metius tell the dead baby: "I'm sorry but I couldn't have you in my life right now."
Members of the jury became visibly upset while viewing the hidden camera footage, and continually shot glances at Metius, who sobbed loudly and buried her face in her hands in the dock.
It has not been explained why the hospital room was fitted with the secret recording devices. However, Crown prosecutor Leanne Clare said Bray had to be revived several other times in the months leading up to his death after he mysteriously stopped breathing. On each occasion, Metius was the only person present.
Ms Clare said despite a battery of tests, doctors had found no medical explanation for these repeated "hypoxic episodes".
He was left severely brain damaged following one episode due to prolonged oxygen starvation.
An interactive crime scene demonstration tendered as evidence revealed the hospital room where Bray was killed, in ward eight south at the Mater, was just a few paces from a nurses station. There were also windows on all sides, including one looking out onto a children's playground.
The trial continues.
Bob Geldof still thinks Australia is one of the meanest countries on Planet Earth when it comes to its foreign aid program.
The outspoken singer gave an emphatic response when asked if Australia was shouldering its weight of the world's international aid.
"No, it's embarrassingly pathetic," the former Boomtown Rats frontman told a news conference this morning.
"In fact it is one of the meanest on the planet."
Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has promised to increase Australia's overseas aid program - now just 0.3% of GDP - to 0.5% of GDP by 2015, if elected.
Geldof was still unimpressed, accusing Australia's leaders of breaking United Nations goals for foreign aid.
"For a country that keeps boasting about its huge growth, which is absolutely correct - it should boast and be proud of it - is 99.5% not enough for you?
"You know, is that not enough for you?"
Sir Bob, in Brisbane to speak at tonight's QUT Business Leaders forum, made the comments as he was appointed - somewhat lightheartedly - as an Honorary Ambassador for Brisbane.
Geldof said Australia's commitment to foreign aid was well below the levels of other countries.
"I mean Britain will get to 0.51%, which is the result of LiveAid by 2012, France by 2013, and the European countries ... will get to 0.7% by 2015," Sir Bob said.
The man synonymous with Live Aid and Live 8 concerts said Australia was in danger of missing international agreements on foreign aid.
"If you don't get to 0.5% by 2010, you don't get to 0.7% by 2015," he said.
"And Australia has agreed to that in the Millenium Development Goals of the UN (United Nations).
"So, in fact whoever is prompting 0.5% - it is actually breaking an Australian promise to get to 0.7% by 2015.
"And if people think that is a lot of money - what, is 99.3% not enough for you all? Is it not enough?
"It's tragic."
Geldof spoke amiably to reporters for 30 minutes this morning, covering all things in his trademark relaxed style - except for Australia's record on foreign aid.
It is a point he also highlighted in 2005 in an interview with the ABC.
Back then, he said Africa received between $12 and $20 billion each year, equivalent to one third of the total world aid.
In 2005, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) estimated Australia would provide $67.5 million in the 2005-06 financial year.
Australia's total foreign aid program for 2005-06 was around $2 billion.
Geldof switched course several times during the morning, from his evening last night at a Brisbane salsa club to Brisbane's population growth, tourism and climate change.
He later accepted a plaque from Lord Mayor Campbell Newman recognising his role as an ambassador for Brisbane.
Geldof speaks tonight at the Brisbane Visitors and Convention Centre for QUT.
Police have charged seven youths, including an 11 year old, over an assault on an off-duty police officer and his girlfriend on the Gold Coast last weekend.
An 11-year-old boy from Tweed Heads was charged with robbery with violence and assault occasioning bodily harm over the assault of the 27-year-old officer and his 26-year-old girlfriend who were walking on East Dutton Street at Coolangatta about 12.45am (AEST) on Saturday when they were kicked and punched by about 20 youths.
He is due to appear in Southport Children's Court tomorrow.
A 16-year-old Banora Point teenager will appear tomorrow in Southport Childrens Court after being charged with robbery with violence while in company, assault occasioning bodily harm, and affray.
Five other youths aged 15 to 17 from NSW have also been arrested and will appear before a magisatrate tomorrow, when police are expected to make an extradition application.
Police said the unarmed officer was allegedly beaten to the ground before having his head stomped on and his wallet stolen.
His girlfriend was also hurt.
The attackers were captured on security video congratulating each other as they walked away after the incident, police said.
The couple were treated for injuries including concussion, factures, cuts, and bruising.
Premier Anna Bligh said the report was disturbing and questioned why parents would allow such young children to be roaming the streets late at night.
"To find that many of those people involved in that incident are as young as 11 and 12 is doubly distressing,'' Ms Bligh told reporters today.
"If it is established that children as young as 11 and 12 have been involved in an incident like this, then I think it begs some very big questions about the families that have responsibility for these children.
"Why were they on the street at this time of night and why were they roving around in gangs?
"I think that as a community, we need to ask those tough questions and take tough action.''
AAP
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says she wants Brisbane's Roma Street area to become a thriving transport, commercial and residential hub for the city.
Ms Bligh yesterday released plans for a Roma Street redevelopment which focused on improved commuter, pedestrian and cyclist access to surrounding areas.
It is part of the government's $1 billion Transit Oriented Developments plan for the Bowen Hills, Albion and South Bank areas of Brisbane.
Ms Bligh said that under the project, Roma Street railway station would become the city's most important transport interchange and a gateway for local and visiting bus and train travellers.
"Our vision is to create Brisbane, the capital of our state, as a smart city within a smart state," Ms Bligh told reporters yesterday.
"To do that we need good planning and Roma Street is one area of the city that has enormous potential for further development."
The land will continue to be government-owned and the development will be on the basis of a long-term lease at no cost to the taxpayer, she said.
The plan will be available for public consultation until February.
Last month, the state government announced the redevelopment of the South Bank Railway station, to be named Southpoint. Earlier this month, plans were also unveiled to redevelop the iconic flour mills and silos at Albion on Brisbane's northside as the focal point of a $280 million village and transport centre.
AAP
AP - A US energy lab is testing 13 hybrid cars retrofitted with mileage-boosting batteries that can be plugged into a regular household electrical outlet.
The US Department of Energy demonstration project is aimed at judging the performance of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in an urban area. Over the next 12 months, 13 converted Toyota Prius cars owned by the city of Seattle, King County, Port of Seattle and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency will drive the streets of western Washington state in the study by the Idaho National Laboratory.
So far, the cars' mileage per gallon has about doubled after being outfitted with lithium plug-in batteries, to 125 miles per gallon in city driving conditions.
"We've done some testing where we've seen over 200 miles per gallon" under laboratory conditions, said Jim Francfort, who leads the program. "Where you've got a lot of city driving, we're seeing 125 miles per gallon, plus."
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Hybrids generally use power from their gas-fueled engines or generated by braking to charge their batteries to propel them in rush-hour and city traffic; in higher-speed situations like highway driving, the engine kicks in.
The Prius comes from the factory with a 1.3 kilowatt-hour battery pack. INL is testing vehicles that have been given five kwh to 10 kwh packs. Scientists hope to reduce the cost of a plug-in hybrid battery to just $US3,000 ($A3,244) per car.
By Shaun Davies
with ninemsn staff and wires
David Landis from Red Rocket Toy Store in Sydney said a number of callers had asked him about Bindeez yesterday, with some imploring him to ignore a nation-wide recall and sell them beads.
But he said it was difficult to know whether the calls were made by rogue parents or sneaky thrill seekers.
"I did definitely notice that people were still calling," Mr Landis said.
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"It would be difficult to say whether or not they were particularly young or not."
Revelations that a popular children's toy metabolises into GBH when eaten has sparked a flurry of interest on drug and rave-culture forums.
Bindeez quickly became a topic of discussion on drugs forums, with some users calling toy stores to check if the beads were still available.
Others asked for advice on buying beads from eBay, speculated about the exact chemical makeup of the toy and joked about drug users stampeding stores.
"Right, just say for example … that one wanted to purchase some of these magic beads off a fictional online auction site before they all disappear without a trace," wrote one user on a forum at inthemix.com.au, a club culture website.
"Would one, for example, assume that you could safely consume these magic beads and experience the, um, magic? I mean these magic beads don't actually contain G but they do turn into G when processed by our bodies, correct?"
Another user on the Bluelight Australian drugs discussion forum said they had called seven stores to find out whether the Bindeez beads were still available.
But the same user later added another post, saying that it would be "stupid to abuse these as a drug … who the hell would swallow these for a high?"
Another user joked: "Hundreds of drug users were killed today driving at high speeds to the local Toys R Us."
There were also reports that the price of Bindeez had skyrocketed on eBay before the online auction site removed the toys from sale.
Paul Dillon from Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia said there would be some interest in the beads from certain sections of the drug-using community.
But because GHB was already a relatively cheap drug, he did not think Bindeez beads would become a hot commodity.
"There's a certain section of the drug-taking community, who you might call pseudo-chemists, who would have been interested in this," Mr Dillon said.
The popular Hong Kong-manufactured craft toy has been officially banned in NSW, Queensland, the ACT, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory after two NSW children chomped on the "magic beads" in the toy and suffered seizures in separate incidents.
In Queensland, a third toddler was rushed to Toowoomba's St Vincents hospital last night after putting the toy in his mouth and falling ill.
Testing by scientists in NSW found the chemical link to the drug gamma-hydroxy butyrate (GHB) — also known as fantasy or Grievous Bodily Harm — which can also cause drowsiness, coma and death.
The drug was a factor in the cruise ship death of Brisbane mother Dianne Brimble, a Sydney inquest this year found.
Sydney-based poisons specialist Dr Naren Gunja said the list of Bindeez's ingredients supplied by the manufacturer said it should contain the non-toxic chemical known as 1,5-pentanediol.
"What we've found in the beads from testing done ... by our hospital scientists is that it contains 1,4-butanediol," Dr Gunja said, adding that this chemical was metabolised by the body into GHB.
"It can cause seizure-like activity and fitting, and both of the children that presented to the Children's Hospital at Westmead (in Sydney) had these symptoms ... quite serious effects and potentially life-threatening."
with AAP
US rocker Meat Loaf has cancelled his European tour after developing a cyst on his vocal cords, but he denied media reports he might be quitting the stage for good.
A series of November concerts across Europe, including one at Wembley Arena later on Tuesday, have been scrapped.
"It really breaks my heart not to be able to perform these shows," Meat Loaf, born Marvin Lee Aday, said in a statement.
"But I have to do what the doctors tell me so I can look forward to healing and coming back strong in 2008. Let me dispel any rumours before they start - I will be back."
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Speculation about the tour, and Bat Out Of Hell star Meat Loaf's long-term performing career, first started when a regional British newspaper quoted him as saying: "This is the last show I may ever do in my life," before walking off stage.
YEAR 10 student has been given permission to take cigarette breaks while at school because her doctor says she is clinically addicted to nicotine.
Tara Lewis, 16, who smokes as much as a packet a day, is allowed to smoke between classes to relieve the "stress" of her Year 10 studies.
Stromlo High School has granted the amazing concession to the Canberra teenager despite the ACT Government boasting of its plans to tighten laws to stop underage smoking.
It is also illegal to supply cigarettes to anybody under the age of 18.
Yet the Government has for years allowed smoking at five selected year 11 and 12 colleges in the Territory and will only introduce a total ban from January 1, 2008.
The school's decision also mocks the $25 million the Federal Government is investing over the next four years in a national campaign to stop young people aged between 12 and 24 from smoking.
The high school student told The Sunday Telegraph it was a "massive" relief to be able to smoke at school as it helped to calm her down.
"As soon as I've got a cigarette in my hand, I'm calmer," she said.
Stromlo High School gave her permission for "smoko" breaks following advice from Tara's mother, Patrece, and her family doctor.
"We were worried that she wasn't going to finish year 10 if she couldn't smoke," Ms Lewis, 35, said.
The ACT Department of Education denied it gave Tara permission "to go out for a smoke" in school grounds.
It said she was allowed to leave the school during lunch breaks due to "exceptional circumstances".
"We were trying to work out the best way to get her through year 10," the spokesman said.
The ACT's Opposition Leader Bill Stefaniak slammed the decision.
"She's at an age where she's not legally allowed to smoke, and I'm amazed anyone suggests there is any medical reason for her to smoke," he said.
Anti-smoking campaigner Anne Jones, of Action on Smoking and Health, said the school was reckless in facilitating Tara's addiction.
'It's unconscionable for a school to be setting up a convenient place for students to smoke.
"They have obviously been conned by her."
Ms Jones said the school should be supplying Tara with nicotine patches or gum.
Tara's mother, also a smoker, said the situation reached breaking point last month when her daughter was placed on detention, and prevented from leaving the school grounds.
"She was really stressed. She just calms down if she has got a cigarette; otherwise she storms in the door, cranky and angry."
Ms Lewis said she made the request during a meeting with a teacher and the vice-principal.
"I told them her major problem is when she is stressed, if she could just have a cigarette to calm her down and stop her getting angry.
"I said: 'I've talked to the doctor about it'.
"Both teachers said: 'Okay, I don't see why not'."
Under the special rule, Tara said she can smoke in school grounds, near the staff carpark, but must remain away from other students.
Tara's mother said she had started rewarding Tara with just six cigarettes a day if she did chores and behaved at school.
"It's not like I want my kid to smoke. I've done everything to get her to stop it, so if I can control it and say 'when you can have a cigarette, you do chores', that might help.
"I don't want her smoking. It's the last thing you want to let your kid do."
Parents were outraged last week that the school was breaking strict rules and the law.
"I think it's ridiculous," said one parent. "The school has a strong anti-smoking policy, yet does this."
A chemical found in plastics used for everything from water bottles to dental fillings poses a serious health risk, environmentalists and researchers say, although the jury has yet to deliver a final verdict.
Bisphenol A (BPA) is added to hard, clear polycarbonate plastics like those used in reusable water bottles and baby bottles, as well as the resins lining food cans and in some dental amalgams and sealants. Polycarbonate is identified by the number 7 inside the recycling symbol found on the plastic. About 95 per cent of number 7 plastics contain BPA, according to Aaron Freeman, policy and campaign director at Environmental Defence, a Canadian health and environment group.
Research on lab animals has linked the chemical to changes to the genital tract, prostate enlargement, declined testosterone, pre-cancerous breast cells, prostate cancer, early puberty in females and hyperactivity.
Studies have suggested that BPA acts as an endocrine disrupter, which means that it can mimic or disrupt estrogen, interfering with the hormone system's normal functioning.
"These are the things that interfere with the natural development processes in our bodies," said Freeman, "the switches that tell our body when to develop certain types of systems."
Research done in the late 1990s at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University found that polycarbonate plastic can leach low levels of BPA when washed with harsh chemicals, Freeman said, but newer research by Environmental Health Perspectives also found that while heating or harsh washing increased leaching, it also happens in new bottles.
BPA isn't biocumulative or persistent, so it doesn't last in the body longer than 24 hours, Freeman said. Environmental Defence has done four rounds of tests for chemical accumulation in the bodies of high profile Canadians, including politicians. The most recent round of testing found BPA in the subjects' bodies.
"What that means is there's chronic exposure," Freeman said, "and we found it at levels that were producing serious health risks in animal studies."
The effects of BPA on human health are examined in amounts as low as parts per trillion.
With chemicals like BPA, the length and timing of the dosage appears to be more important than the size, Freeman said. Exposure in utero and in infants and children is of particular concern, he said, because the chemical is thought to affect developmental processes.
The possible effect of very small doses of BPA was explained to him using the metaphor of a ship, he said: you can build the strongest hull you like, but if your navigation system is just slightly off, you won't get to your destination.
The current knowledge about how BPA acts on the body comes from animal studies, and no comparable human trials exist. There isn't yet a clear scientific consensus on the risks BPA may pose, but research suggests that the chemical affects lab animals at levels much lower than those currently considered safe.
Much of the research on BPA is very new, with several studies having come out in the past year. "I think this is a good time for people to sit up and take notice," said Adria Vasil, author of Ecoholic. "This isn't really just fringe groups doing research. It is really credible scientific journals coming out with this information."
The American Chemistry Council says that BPA doesn't pose a risk to human health at the typically low levels of exposure, although they support further research.
This past summer, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States conducted a review with 38 leading researchers, who concluded that BPA does pose some health risks, though they were mostly classified as minimal. The full NIH report is due this fall. The Canadian Cancer Society says that the relevance of laboratory animal studies to human health is unknown, and it's unclear if BPA poses a risk in cancer development.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that BPA is safe for food-grade use, and set a maximum acceptable dose of 0.05 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, and the European Food Safety Authority has come to similar conclusions. Japan phased out the use of BPA in the linings of tin cans about a decade ago, and subsequent testing found that BPA levels in humans were down 50 per cent, Freeman said.
The Canadian government is reviewing BPA, along with about 200 other chemicals, for possible health risks. Industry is expected to respond to the challenge this fall, and the Canadian government will release their own response - which could include regulatory action - in the spring.
"This is a real window of opportunity with the federal government to take action on this chemical," Freeman said.
In the meantime, concerned consumers can reduce their exposure by choosing glass containers over plastic and fresh or frozen foods over canned. Some manufacturers produce polycarbonate baby bottles without BPA, Vasil said, and they are often found at health food stores. For people who want to avoid plastic food containers altogether, there are several aluminium, glass and stainless steel options available.
Vasil expects the Canadian government might decide in spring to phase BPA out of baby products - as they have done with phthalates, another controversial chemical used in plastic - but considers that a halfway measure. We tend to assume that chemicals approved for use by the government are safe, she said, despite having seen that assumption proved wrong in the past.
"Until we hear the official word on this," Vasil said, "I think it's best to take the precautionary approach and switch to alternative products in the meantime."
The current knowledge about how BPA acts on the body comes from animal studies, and no comparable human trials exist. There isn't yet a clear scientific consensus on the risks BPA may pose, but research suggests that the chemical affects lab animals at levels much lower than those currently considered safe.
Much of the research on BPA is very new, with several studies having come out in the past year. "I think this is a good time for people to sit up and take notice," said Adria Vasil, author of Ecoholic. "This isn't really just fringe groups doing research. It is really credible scientific journals coming out with this information."
The American Chemistry Council says that BPA doesn't pose a risk to human health at the typically low levels of exposure, although they support further research.
This past summer, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States conducted a review with 38 leading researchers, who concluded that BPA does pose some health risks, though they were mostly classified as minimal. The full NIH report is due this fall. The Canadian Cancer Society says that the relevance of laboratory animal studies to human health is unknown, and it's unclear if BPA poses a risk in cancer development.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that BPA is safe for food-grade use, and set a maximum acceptable dose of 0.05 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, and the European Food Safety Authority has come to similar conclusions. Japan phased out the use of BPA in the linings of tin cans about a decade ago, and subsequent testing found that BPA levels in humans were down 50 per cent, Freeman said.
The Canadian government is reviewing BPA, along with about 200 other chemicals, for possible health risks. Industry is expected to respond to the challenge this fall, and the Canadian government will release their own response - which could include regulatory action - in the spring.
"This is a real window of opportunity with the federal government to take action on this chemical," Freeman said.
In the meantime, concerned consumers can reduce their exposure by choosing glass containers over plastic and fresh or frozen foods over canned. Some manufacturers produce polycarbonate baby bottles without BPA, Vasil said, and they are often found at health food stores. For people who want to avoid plastic food containers altogether, there are several aluminium, glass and stainless steel options available.
Vasil expects the Canadian government might decide in spring to phase BPA out of baby products - as they have done with phthalates, another controversial chemical used in plastic - but considers that a halfway measure. We tend to assume that chemicals approved for use by the government are safe, she said, despite having seen that assumption proved wrong in the past.
"Until we hear the official word on this," Vasil said, "I think it's best to take the precautionary approach and switch to alternative products in the meantime."
Reuters
GRETEL Killeen has been dumped from Big Brother as Ten seeks to revamp the struggling show by introducing new hosts, radio duo Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O.
"Working on Big Brother has been an extraordinary, challenging and rewarding experience," Killeen said. "I'm really proud of what we've achieved but I now have the seven-year itch and am busting to get on with a million new things, including my first feature film, which we're shooting in the new year."
After seven years, the show is in dire need of a change. The 2007 series was criticised for its boring and predictable housemates, resulting in poor ratings and speculation the show might be axed. But producers Endemol Southern Star have confirmed the show will return in 2008 in a "tighter, re-energised format".
Jackie O wants 'shake-up'
It will again be filmed at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast.
"I would like to see them shake it up, especially with the contestants because I think everybody is sick of the same old contestants going in," Jackie O said. "It actually gets really boring after a while. "As a fan, I have always wanted a bigger variety of people in there and also to push the contestants more."
Her co-host has a similar view and speaks from experience. Sandilands was a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother in 2002 and was a guest in the house for a weekend this year, although he had to leave early because he suffered from a migraine. Sandilands wants 'grumpy old men'
"I want that conflict, that real sense of drama rather than that frat house drama that we've seen over the last few years," Sandilands, who is also a judge on Ten's Australian Idol, said. "It is time that we mix it up a little bit. "We will still have young, fun people in there but the whole house won't be full of 20-something losers. "I would like the old grumpy man that hates loud noise and hates young people in there."
Both Sandilands and Jackie O praised Killeen on her hosting of the show, saying they were big fans of her TV style.
Ten will be hoping for a big boost in ratings with the revamped show.
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