Broken Hill lead contamination: NSW Environment Protection Agency delayed critical children’s blood report for four years

State government bureaucrats delayed by four years the release of a critical report on lead contamination in children’s blood, citing concerns about media coverage, the negative reaction from mining companies and how it would affect mining activities in other parts of the state.

A scientific report completed in 2019 found two operating mines in Broken Hill were contributing to elevated blood lead levels in children, and that the problem could not be attributed solely to legacy environmental contamination from the town’s historic mining boom.

The study was released in November 2023, almost four years after it was first presented to the NSW Environmental Protection Agency.

In internal documents made public during budget estimates this month, bureaucrats at the state’s environment watchdog