Doctors reject AMA chief’s stance on Hazelwood closure and health
Australian Medical Association accused of supporting politics over science after Dr Michael Gannon said impact of job losses may outweigh health benefits. Members of the Australian Medical Association have threatened to quit over comments by the national president, Dr Michael Gannon, that the impact of job losses from Victoria’s Hazelwood power plant closure should be considered as well as the health benefits. Gannon has been accused of contradicting clear AMA policy on clean air and going back on his pledge to be less political than his predecessor, but the head of Australia’s peak medical body has denied both accusations. The AMA’s former vice president Dr Stephen Parnis told the Doctors for the Environment Australia conference on Sunday that Gannon’s comments were “a wilful distortion of AMA policy”. On Wednesday Gannon told Guardian Australiathe health benefits of closing down brown coal power plants need to be considered alongside the health impacts of unemployment and blackouts. While he said the closure of the coal-fired plant was “good news” for children with asthma, the elderly and people who suffered respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, “there is also the health effects of unemployment that need to be considered”. “The Australian Medical Association has clear positions about the risk of providing energy supply through fossil fuels and specifically the risk of brown coal, but somewhere in this we would call for common sense,” he said. “We need stable base-load power as well, and we need grown-up conversations about gas and nuclear power while technology is developed to deliver renewable energy.” The AMA has received several letters of complaint from its members, including threats to quit the organisation, and accusations that Gannon has gone back on his pledge to be less political than his predecessor. One letter accused the AMA of supporting political statements instead of an “evidence-based approach” to health. “Yes, doctors know that unemployment is destructive to health, but [that] didn’t prevent the AMA from making a stand against the tobacco industry, with resultant lack of jobs,” the letter said.
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on Apr 3 2017. Filed under News at Now, Wildlife.
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