Meat & Livestock Australia are worried about coal mine waste residues. In their Risk Assessment Audit, which ensures Australian meat production is clean and safe, free from chemical residues they ask (Q7):  “Do stock have access to leaking electrical transformers, capacitors, hydraulic equipment or coal mine wastes?

They go on to say that carcinogenic PCBs, very persistent industrial chemicals, “have been found in soil below leaking electrical transformers, in the oil leaking from capacitor starts on larger electric motors, on former coal mining leases and in materials such as coal washery wastes (chitter) that have been brought on to farms for use as road base of stockyard surfaces”.

So, the MLA know that coal mine waste contains nasties that should not be in the food chain.  Yet the mining companies tell us that ‘food production’ and mining can co-exist.

If the Australian Government is serious about our food safety and food security, our export reputation and the health of consumers, clearly it’s another clear cut case that coal and gas mining can not be allowed near food producing land or water sources.