A serious health issue for our children

I have been wondering whether to do this as a request and finally decided to take the responsibility as it is such an important issue.


Mountain locals may have seen in yesterday's BM Gazette a story about a couple of children suffering health problems due to the unflued gas heaters in Blackheath Public School. While the article outlined their personal story, I thought it was a real shame that they didn't mention the campaign that has been running for a while trying to raise awareness and gather signatures on their petition. http://www.cough.org.au/  (Campaign Opposing Unflued Gas Heating).

I am concerned personally because my children will be attending Blackheath school next year, however the reality is that many schools across the Blue Mts and NSW have unflued gas heaters which are posing a threat to our children's health. It is a particular problem to us as we have more cool days requiring heating than schools in many other areas.


There is a huge amount of evidence worldwide linking health problems with this type of heating- and it has been BANNED for many years in most other countries, and in every state of Australia except NSW. W.A recently ordered complete removal of all of these heaters from schools by Christmas this year - (ironically due to this NSW campaign) but yet our own schools still have them. (It is not a decision of each school, but of each State's Dept. Education and Training). There is a load of info on the COUGH website if you want to know more.


OK, I've stood on my soapbox long enough, thank you for reading this far!! Now some ACTION---


Whether this affects your children directly or you just care about other children-  Please take 2 minutes to sign the online petiton here -- http://www.cough.org.au/

It is very easy - just your name and email and they send a confirmation email to make sure you are genuine. (And if you have more than one email address both parents can sign it) I'm not asking that you stand outside protesting with banners (!) just a quick online signature .... and if you know anyone else with young children- please feel free to pass this on.



We need to ensure all of our children are safe in their schools.


http://www.cough.org.au/


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