Air test results destroyed? Liberals ask why

mareva said :

It’s disappointing there are no air test results. There are, however, results from the testing that was carried out on soil, water and surfaces. Better than nothing.

None of that testing was in residential areas was it, other than right near Mitchell? Yet residents of the inner north were experiencing sore throats, headaches etc. “Better than nothing” is pretty damn irrelevant if you need to know the extent of the environmental contamination.

It’s disappointing there are no air test results. There are, however, results from the testing that was carried out on soil, water and surfaces. Better than nothing.

A few years ago I spent two days in a small town in France which had a large chemical company premises on the outskirts of the town and right on the town’s river. I was disconcerted to notice in shops etc that an awful lot of people seemed to have little red spots on their upper arms, and wondered whether it was from environmental contamination. Interestingly, in the last few days I’ve had similar small red spots on my thigh, and an unprecedented little sore spot on my tongue, as well as something similar to a coldsore in the the corner of my mouth (but isn’t behaving like a coldsore). Could be a coincidence, but I’m not prone to skin conditions such as psioriasis and I’ve never had these symptoms before …
If others have had similar symptoms and reported them, that could give some insight into why the monitoring and test results have been (deliberately IMO) slack to the point where any investigation into the facts would be expensive and difficult. Simon “Mini Bhopal” Corbell is acting adversarially, like the defence lawyer in a lawsuit, already. Some representative of the people of Canberra!

They may as well just fess up and tell us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Despite what they obviously think, we’re not stupid. The longer they make excuses, the bigger the hole they dig. You only need to spend a few minutes on the internet to find out what the result of burning or incinerating PCBs is.

pajs said :

Depends a bit on what equipment they have and what they are testing for, but it’s reasonably common for smaller portable test units to be focussed on giving OK/maybe a problem results, often without generating an overall record for all the tests. The idea is you can take a bunch of quick readings and if stuff you’re sampling for goes over a threshold, then you start into subsequent testing, documenting test results etc.

Any decent scientist would know to record the results. At the very least the tester would be able to say “i made x tests that night on the air quality, with a threshold of x, there were x passes and x fails. I sampled air in x area throughout the night, mainly focusing on x region”. It wouldn’t be that hard to drum up a few paragraphs. Most weekends police release a statement about their RBTs without having a dedicated logger on-site, i don’t see why a scientist can’t do the same.

I would not be surprised in one of the people doing the measurements kept some scribbled record of their own, to make comparisons over time. Which body actually did the measuring?

Whereas it is true that this does not mean anything suspicious happened, failing to even have the information people need to know is quite disconcerting and plays right into the hands of conspiracy lovers. It’s not like this was some minor fire.

Depends a bit on what equipment they have and what they are testing for, but it’s reasonably common for smaller portable test units to be focussed on giving OK/maybe a problem results, often without generating an overall record for all the tests. The idea is you can take a bunch of quick readings and if stuff you’re sampling for goes over a threshold, then you start into subsequent testing, documenting test results etc.

gooterz said :

A sign of how shotty things are run around here?

When would air testing equipment not be portable and since when do we not record things of importance especially to accountability?

Record keeping dates back to at least 8000 BC

Do you have a record of this?

Sorry, I felt compelled!

In all seriosness though, it does seem od to me that not so much as a note was made, or was the testing equiptment that back dated that the result was litterally “Yep, She’ll be right”

A sign of how shotty things are run around here?

When would air testing equipment not be portable and since when do we not record things of importance especially to accountability?

Record keeping dates back to at least 8000 BC

Gungahlin Al said :

For pete’s sake. They’ve already said they were using portable testing equipment that didn’t have recording capabilities.
Must everything be about reds under the bed?

Sounds a bit like the old days of the NSW Police when evidence suddenly went missing and recordings were “accidentally” wiped.

At least the NSW rozzers had the smarts to actually operate the equipment in the first place.

johnboy said :

So Zed’s back to copying tony abbott’s talking points and hasn’t hauled in that there’s a uniquely local issue at play here? Oh brilliant!

Pretty much!

Gungahlin Al said :

For pete’s sake. They’ve already said they were using portable testing equipment that didn’t have recording capabilities.
Must everything be about reds under the bed?

Better a red under the bed than a Zed under the bed.

So Zed’s back to copying tony abbott’s talking points and hasn’t hauled in that there’s a uniquely local issue at play here? Oh brilliant!

johnboy said :

00davist said :

He is listing a few issues people had with govt. handling of the fire as a reinforcement to his line of attack against what he feels to be the latest issue in a list of issues relating to the fire.

Why does this confuse you?

Because “some teachers confused over a day’s pay issue” doesn’t really rate on the same page as “was half the city poisoned?”, at least not in my book.

I’m not saying it does, but the reason for mentioning the confusion in pay was simply to highlight that there have been a NUMBER off issues, some big, some small, that he feels indicate a pattern of incopetance.

I’m not saying i agree or disagree with him, but the mantion of the teachers pay thing seems in no way out of place to me, in fact, becase it’s related to the fire in a completly different way, It’s use shows that the issues raised (if you agree with them) are wide-ranging, and incorporate more than just air.

It’s essentually one party saying “Is there ANYTHING they got right with this fire” about the oter party.

Standard ploitcal slagging, goes both ways state and federal, particuarly with the children we see in ACT, NSW and the Federal Govt. And Opposition parties.

This is starting to sound a bit like Jon’s ‘The buck stops with me’….but then a few weeks later….the buck stopped with everyone else.

Surely….surely….someone took notes of readings (negative or otherwise).

Al – you managed to get your phone and camera on the way out the door that morning. One would assume the bloke that was actually employed to work as part of the response (and was trusted to take readings that key safety decisions were based on) was a bit more thorough than ‘yep, she’s OK. Job’s done.’

00davist said :

He is listing a few issues people had with govt. handling of the fire as a reinforcement to his line of attack against what he feels to be the latest issue in a list of issues relating to the fire.

Why does this confuse you?

Because “some teachers confused over a day’s pay issue” doesn’t really rate on the same page as “was half the city poisoned?”, at least not in my book.

Gungahlin Al said :

For pete’s sake. They’ve already said they were using portable testing equipment that didn’t have recording capabilities.

I was down at officeworks the other day, and they have these things called “pen & paper”

He is listing a few issues people had with govt. handling of the fire as a reinforcement to his line of attack against what he feels to be the latest issue in a list of issues relating to the fire.

Why does this confuse you?

Gungahlin Al said :

Not everything is digital…

in that case is it too much to expect an analog notebook and pencil?

esp when the stakes are so high.

Not exactly material as to whether lax regulation has had half the city dosed up with PCB’s though.

I think the teacher’s pay issue had to do with some being told to use leave if they did not go to school on the fire day while others were told they would be recorded as ‘working from home’.

Can you even have a ‘litany of mounting failures’?

Not everything is digital…

Many would have expected the advanced technology of a notebook to be put into use.

For pete’s sake. They’ve already said they were using portable testing equipment that didn’t have recording capabilities.
Must everything be about reds under the bed?