Port Augusta Pollution

One person who was always certain about the root cause of health problems in Port Augusta was the fierce long-time mayor of the town, the late Joy Baluch. Baluch lost her husband – a non-smoker – to lung cancer, and had a child with severe asthma. In her many trips to Adelaide hospitals to seek treatment, she found many children from her town, all suffering similar problems. She was contemptuous of government attempts to blame smoking and other factors for the town’s burden of disease. In an oral history project recorded in 2008, she said pollution from the power stations was the spur for her entering local government. For full story click here.