Arsenic found in children's toenail clippings
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Ballarat University researchers say council run clean-up programs of old mine sites in the goldfields in central Victoria have prevented high levels of arsenic in children.
However, they have identified low levels of the potentially toxic chemical in soil from children's play areas and toenail clippings.
Associate Professor Dr Dora Pearce says parents should prevent their children from playing around mine waste and ensure they wash their hands before eating.
But she says the arsenic levels found are too low to cause major health problems.
"In other parts of the world where people have been exposed to arsenic in contaminated drinking water they've had really seriously high levels and they've had skin diseases and all sorts of systemic heart problems, diabetes, linked to their levels and also cancers, but here in the goldfields clearly there's no issue of anything at that level," Dr Pearce said.
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