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A Tale Of Two Towns: Observations On Risk Perception Of Environmental Lead Exposure In Port Pirie And Esperance, Australia, Jane Heyworth, Chris Reynolds, Alison Jones

Alison L Jones

Environmental lead exposure in Port Pire, South Australia and Esperance, Western Australia led to differing perceptions of risk among these communities. This paper describes our observations of the social and economic context of these cases of environmental lead exposure and how this influenced responses among the community. Lead had been transported out of the Esperance Port since 2005. However, much of the community was unaware of this until it became public as part of the investigation into bird deaths in the local environment. Esperance saw itself as an idyllic rural community, with a sound economic basis, but removed from the …