Morwell health study should be extended, inquiry counsel urges

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The length of the long-term health study of Morwell residents established because of the coalmine fire should be doubled to at least 20 years, the Hazelwood mine fire inquiry has heard.

The recommendation was made by counsel assisting the inquiry, Melinda Richards, SC, who described the smoke from the long-running mine fire as ”an insult” to a community that suffered relatively poor health outcomes. ”It is notorious that health outcomes in the Latrobe Valley are worse than those for the remainder of Victoria. The smoke from the mine fire in February and March this year added insult to an already poor situation … This is an opportunity to take that insult and turn it into a basis for improvement of health outcomes in the Latrobe Valley,” she said.

Ms Richards said the Latrobe Valley could be declared a ”health conservation area”, with a person appointed as ”a health advocate” for the region who could ”act as a champion for improved health in the Latrobe Valley more generally”.

The health study should have a governance structure that allowed for the inclusion of community representatives and a ”Latrobe Valley health advocate”, and it should publish regular progress reports.