Councillor Chris Harris

Hello to all who attended the community meeting last month at the Paddington Town Hall where we discussed the activities of Fox Studios and the airborne and waterborne emissions that are coming out of the site. See below, over the fold, for a summary of the information provided to the community by Dr Chris Winder & Dr Mark Donohoe.

If you didn’t attend the meeting or would like to hear the speakers again, recordings of the main speakers are provided here in MP3 format in two parts.

1. Introductory remarks and then presentation by Dr Chris Winder: MP3 stream or MP3 download (35 MB)
2. Presentation by Dr Mark Donohoe: MP3 stream or MP3 download
   (15 MB)

If you have further questions or observations I would be interested in hearing from you.

The meeting was held at Paddington Town Hall on August 17 betwen 6 and 9 p.m.

Associate Professor Chris Winder

Role of Business

• It is a commonly held belief among business people that the function of business is to make profits and create wealth for its shareholders
• Such a viewpoint does not acknowledge the principle that businesses draw a licence to operate from the community
• Therefore, businesses have an obligation to that community

Duty of Care

• Implicit in the ‘licence to operate’ is that businesses must acknowledge that they have a duty of care to the community
• This duty of care extends to those activities for which they are responsible
• Duty of care must be demonstrated by evidence of systems for due diligence
• Failure to make this effort is negligence

Fox Studios and the NSW Government

• Prior to March 1995, the NSW Opposition gave a commitment to having Fox Studios on the Sydney Showground site as part of its election platform
• When the Carr Labour government was elected in March 1995, this became government policy
• On 12th April 1995, News Corp wrote to the new NSW Premier, requesting, among other things,

• ’suspension of the tender process’
• ’suspension of regional environment plan process’
• ‘that an unfettered production environment must be provided’

• In June 1995, the Premier indicated that zoning of the site was to be varied through a ’state environmental planning policy’ (SEPP)
• SEPP47 was gazetted in November 1995. This was completed without public consultation
• SEPP47 made it permissible for the site to become a Film Studio
• SEPP47 bypasses usual DA process (through local councils)
• It is now a ‘non-designated development’, with the sole consent authority being the Minister for Urban Affairs and Planning

The Fox Studios Site

• Fox Studios opened in 1998
• Comprises a 13 hectare site, with 8 stages and production facilities
• There are some 1,200 dwellings, including flats, townhouses and houses, within 1 km of the workshops
• There are two primary schools and a child care centre within 0.5 km of the studios
• Close to a large international sporting complex with a large membership and facilities such as crêches

Development of Fox Studios

• A Master Plan was prepared by Fox for the site, outlining reconfiguration and establishment of the site
• There had been a large number of development applications (DAs) since 1996, all approved by the Minister but not discussed with the community
• DAs are to be publicly advertised to allow residents to submit comments to the Minister (Anybody seen one?)
• DAs should include a statement of environmental effects (plus supporting evidence)
• The numbers of DAs have rendered the Master Plan obsolete

Operations at Fox Studios

It is an active industrial site with a wide range of processes carried out, for example:

• Building 36 (new): Foam sculpting, metal working, painting, chemical storage
• Building 38 (depot): Model making
• Building 37 (William Hamilton Building): Textile dyeing, animatronics, model construction
• Building 34 (Kurrajong Pavilion): Metalworking, fibreglassing, plastering, painting
• Building 29 (Millenium Workshop): Woodworking
• Building 24: Explosives, pyrotechnics

Materials used at Fox Studios

Licence condition L9 notes that ‘the licensee must not cause or permit the emission of offensive odour beyond the boundary of the premises’

• Materials used at Fox will vary from day to day and project to project
• A list supplied by Fox in 2003 provided a list of many hazardous materials
• Some, like solvents, polyurethane two pack paints, adhesives, fibreglass, and metal powders are highly hazardous.
• Others include: Ethacure 300LC Curative; PR-1167 (contains xylene); F60 Part A&B polyurethane; F80 Part A&B polyurethane; WC788 Part A&B polyurethane; TC8764 Part A&B polyurethane; F25 Part A&B polyurethane; WC575 Part A&B polyurethane; F25 Part A&B polyurethane; Erapol ETX 76D (foam), AF-4 anti-foam; polymer daystar dyes; Dyes (Barnes products); Silastic Thixo additive + 81 curing agents (silicon); FGI (fibreglass); Easycast (urethane), Procast (urethane); Supercast (urethane), Aluminium powder, Metal powder, Elastocil M4470 silicon rubber

Emission of Offensive Odours

• Offensive vapours are emitted from activities at Fox Studios
• They are not stopped by a ten foot wall
• They will go beyond the boundary of the premises

Other Problems

• Poor chemical storage
• Poor control of workplace chemical exposures (by ‘open roller doors’ or unfiltered ventilation)
• Poor OHS management (revealed by coroner after death of an 11 year old boy in October 2001)
• Poor storage and handling of asbestos-containing wastes following demolition of Paddington Pavilion in 2002
• No EPA noise restrictions
• Explosives/Pyrotechnics stored on site
• Some chemical wastes disposed to sewerage untreated
• No consultation with NSW Fire Brigades over emergency planning

To Summarise

• Fox Studios Australia has been a substantial industrial infrastructure development for NSW
• Fox Studios is located within a high density residential zoned area
• Fox Studios sought and gained arrangements from the NSW Government, including altered planning conditions
• These conditions exclude the local community from being involved in the planning process
• Fox Studios is a tight concentration of many hazardous processes in a small area
• Development for ‘craft shops’ acknowledge that industrial processes are being carried out in factory-type workshops
• Fox Studios should be considered a heavy industrial site (4b zoning)
• OHS practices remain poor
• Environmental practices remain poor
• Emergency practices remain poor

Dr Mark Donohoe

• Many anecdotal cases of people from the Fox studios area going to my clinic in Manly - some sickened by the smells, others with asthma, skin problems, etc. Many do not present with classic allergies.
• 4 families have moved and are better since moving - there is a cause and effect relationship but it is hard to prove
• There is evidence of toxicity from chemical in a dose-response curve over time, plus the inherent problem of residents who cannot get away. The effect over long periods of time at low levels of exposure will affect particularly children (especially in the first 3 formative years but all the way up to puberty), pregnant women, sensitive individuals and the elderly. It is not an OHS problem.
• It is not just an issue of sensitivity - it is a whole community issue. There is a duty of care to these people.
• Patients come with asthma and/or eczema that is worse at home and better when away from home. This indicates the source of the problem is at their home. Many have non-specific problems. Creams that are generally effective for eczema do not work in these cases. Chemicals such as isocyanates and polyurethanes escalate and increase sensitivity and allergic responses.
• The children in 2 families showed clear behavioural problems which returned to normal when they were away from the area. These two families did not connect their problems with Fox Studios.
• There are also cases of recurrent infections such as sinusitis, ear infections, as well as rashes/urticaria and behavioural disorders.
• Urethane can lead to respiratory disorders and escalate sensitivity generally. Particulates inflame the respiratory tract and patients experience recurrent bronchitis, infections, sinusitis, etc.
• Petrochemicals appear to dysregulate immune systems. Spray painters exhibit this.
• Toxicology has moved on in the last 5 - 10 years - experiments have showed that stress of any type increases the possibility of toxins crossing the blood-brain barrier, as well as increasing the perception of sensitivity. The hopelessness that goes with the inability to move away from the problem could be the source of this stress.