action requested re AU Draft Disability Standards

[Guest guest]

forwarding........

 

 

ASEHA

Saturday, July 04, 2009 7:19 PM

Access to premises standards [1 Attachment]

 

Please help with this letter campaign. If you do not like the letter

please rewrite it, but PLEASE, help us to pressure the AG re access to premises

for those with ES/MCS.

 

If you know others who would support our push for access to goods and

services please pass the letter around.

 

Dorothy

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Name:

Address:

Date:

 

Sen Robert McClelland, MP

Attorney-General

Attorney-General’s Department

Parliament House

CANBERRA, ACT. 2600

 

Re Report of the Inquiry into Draft Disability Standards

Dear Senator McClelland,

I would like to complain about the Report of the Inquiry into Draft

Disability (Access to Premises – Buildings) Standards, June 2009 because the

process did not address the issue of environmental sensitivity/multiple

chemical sensitivity (ES/MCS). The committee failed to adequately consider

the

Human Rights or the most basic needs of individuals with environmental

sensitivities, in particular the large percentage of the population with

allergy, asthma and other diseases that involve chemical sensitivities. Most

with chemical sensitivities have all three problems as well as other

disorders.

While ASEHA Qld Inc provided a submission for the Inquiry which was lodged

on time, no consideration was given to ES/MCS, not even a recommendation

from the committee that some process was begun whereby the most pressing

needs of individuals with ES/MCS was addressed. All ES/MCS attracted was a

committee comment that showed no understanding of the issues involved or the

body of data already in existence in the area of indoor air quality.

Recognition of the most basic human right of access to health care and

essential services needs to be addressed for those with ES/MCS and some action

commenced as a priority so that this group in the population can access

those basic services that the rest of the population take for granted. After

all, government owes us a duty of care to ensure that we can access goods

and services in a safe and timely manner and that our human rights are

observed.

Currently, some individuals with chronic ill health who suffer severe

allergy/sensitivity are ageing and cannot access safe nursing home or hostel

accommodation, while many cannot go to hospital in an emergency because the

facilities are not safe for them and/or their care needs are not addressed.

Some individuals are faced with a situation where they will die at home,

without any medical help or other support which I find unacceptable for

Australia in the year 2009, after all Australia is a developed country.

There already exist a large body of data to support the need for clean

indoor air and low emission building materials and products. This is

fundamental to the health of all human beings, not just those with ES/MCS. The

US

National Institutes of Building Sciences has done this work in their Indoor

Environment Quality Report which had a steering committee of experts in

the area of environmental health, including MCS. That work is available from

the web at _http://ieq.nibs.org_ (http://ieq.nibs.org/) . There is also

work done by our own government in various departments e.g. Environment,

CSIRO, enHealth. Information on green building products is easily accessible

from the Internet.

I would like a commitment from you that will take measures alleviate the

distress and uncertainty currently faced by those with severe ES/MCS and

look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Yours sincerely,

Signed________________________________