Bring lead cases to court: Xstrata

An Australian Xstrata mine. Photo / Bloomberg.

BRISBANE - Mining giant Xstrata has challenged lawyers acting for alleged victims of lead poisoning to quickly bring the cases to court.

But the lawyers for families claiming lead and other metals have brain-damaged their children say it is the mining company that is holding things up.

A new medical report has backed claims two children are suffering brain damage from lead pollution from Xstrata's hard rock mine and smelters in the northwest Queensland city of Mount Isa.

The report was commissioned by five Mount Isa families suing Xstrata, the Queensland government and the city council.

Xstrata Mount Isa Mines Chief Operating Officer Steve de Kruijff said the company was prepared to fight the matter in court, so the full story could be heard.

"The health of a child is too important to be used as a publicity tool," Mr de Kruijff said.

"After two and a half years of threatened court action, these families deserve to have these matters dealt with appropriately.

"If we have any legal cases to answer in relation to an individual's blood-lead levels then we are prepared to answer them all in court."

But Slater & Gordon lawyer Damian Scattini said he had been battling for two and a half years to get Xstrata to come to a compulsory conference, which is required in Queensland under the Personal Injury Proceedings Act (PIPA) before a matter can go to court.

"If Mr de Kruijff wants to have a compulsory conference next week we'll do it," Mr Scattini told AAP.

"We have many times asked Xstrata to waive PIPA but they say no."

Mr de Kruijff said Mt Isa was a safe place to live and the company had spent $250 million over the past seven years on 150 environmental initiatives.

Mr Scattini said the pre-litigation stage was continuing with a meeting between all parties expected later this year.

Five-year-old Sidney Body had a blood-lead level of 31.5 micrograms per decilitre - three times the legal limit, according to the report by Theodore Lidsky, an adjunct professor of neuroscience at City University of New York.

A decilitre is one tenth of a litre.

It also found four-year-old Bethany Sanders had a blood-lead level of 27.4mcg/dl.

Prof Lidsky said in the report both had brain damage linked to their lead exposure.

He also said Bethany's lead poisoning was first detected at the age of about 20 months.

"The developing brain is known to be most sensitive to the neurotoxic effects of lead exposure and the period of Bethany's poisoning is one of prodigious post-natal development," he said in the report.

"Based on the current information Bethany's educational prognosis is grim."

Mr Scattini said the report confirmed many questions.

"It's another piece in the puzzle. We've had them (Xstrata and the government) saying we don't know where it's coming from, well we have answered that, it's coming from the mine ... and it's having devastating effects," Mr Scattini said.

"Now there is no place to run or hide. They have to deal with the facts as they are."

Initial figures from Queensland Health's 2010 testing program show blood-lead levels in the city's children have halved since 2008.

Tests carried out in 2008 showed 11.3 per cent of children aged one to four years in the city had lead levels higher than current safety guidelines.

Opposition health spokesman Bruce Flegg said the government had a responsibility to protect children.

- AAP