Victoria's chief health officer should have told vulnerable people in Morwell to relocate more than a week earlier than she did, as fire raged in the nearby Hazelwood mine.
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And residents will have to wait and see if the smoke and ash that blanketed their town harms their long-term health. The Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry report has recommended the health of the residents be monitored for at least two decades, not the 10 years proposed by the state government.
The inquiry's board found that chief health officer Rosemary Lester was too slow in advising vulnerable residents living near the fire to move. It found that Dr Lester knew the fire would probably burn for at least a month, and based on the pollution figures from the Environment Protection Authority, she should have issued a temporary relocation notice shortly after the weekend of February 16. Instead, she waited until February 28 to tell vulnerable people living south of Commercial Road in Morwell to consider temporary relocation
"The board accepts there are risks associated with relocation. However, it considers that people are best placed to make their own decisions about those risks," the board wrote.
It found there had not been a co-ordinated, whole-of-sector approach to public health during the fire, and many GPs, pharmacists and other specialists had been left in the dark about what was going on.
The board suggested the government consider making the Latrobe Valley a "health conservation zone" in a targeted scheme similar to those implemented in the United States and Britain.
The region had suffered from poorer than average health even before the fire, and the government could encourage health agencies and other organisations to work together to improve health in the region – and provide extra funding to facilitate such a program.
Residents who were hoping for definitive information about what, if any, effect the disaster would have on their health in the future would most likely have been disappointed on Tuesday.
"The long-term adverse effects of exposure to the smoke and ash from the mine are unknown and are of great concern to the community," the report said.
The board found a number of Morwell residents reported headaches, vomiting, sore throats, mouth ulcers, sneezing, coughing and blood noses as a result of smoke and ash from the fire. A small number had developed new respiratory conditions caused by exposure to the smoke.
Many members of the community had developed anxiety and depression, and attributed their conditions to the fire.
