We examine how normative constructions of ‘the creative city’ have entered into Australian planning discourses. Although welcoming a place-based approach, critical consideration is given to how the misappropriation of ‘place making’ in creative city revitalisation plans may enhance rather than address processes of social marginalisation. A Foucauldian framework is employed, exploring the notion of the social production of power through discourse. We draw on a case study of Wentworth Street, a key urban space in Port Kembla, the industrialised district of Wollongong, New South Wales. The study focuses on various ideas of a common place-making theme of the ‘urban village’ evoked by planners, the media and a targeted local resident group (here elderly Macedonians) for a street positioned in ‘crisis’ because of declining infrastructure, services and its association with crime, drugs and prostitution. The case study demonstrates that marginalisation and exclusions are products of creative city strateg...

Community and Nostalgia in Urban Revitalisation: a critique of urban village and creative class strategies as remedies for social ‘problems’

Sources of variation and some principal determinants of blood lead concentration (PbB) were investigated in a cohort of children, followed to age 5 y, who were born near a lead smelter in Port Pirie, South Australia. The child's age and place of residence were the two variables most strongly predictive of PbB. A sharp increase in PbB occurred between 6 and 15 mo of age and was followed by a peak concentration that occurred at approximately 2 y of age, after which PbB steadily and consistently declined. Irrespective of age, the PbBs in children who lived in Port Pirie were significantly higher than levels identified in children who resided outside the city. There was no significant difference in PbB between boys and girls. Elevated PbB at each specific age was associated mainly with increased lead concentrations in the topsoil of the local residential area, employment of the father in the lead industry, parental smoking, and behaviors likely to cause ingestion of dirt. Blood samples taken from children at certain ages and during the warmer months contained more lead than samples obtained during the cooler months. The effects of these determinants on PbB during early childhood were basically consistent in both single and multivariable analyses.

Determinants of Blood Lead Concentrations to Age 5 Years in a Birth Cohort Study of Children Living in the Lead Smelting City of Port Pirie and Surrounding Areas

We review the histories of 26 patients who were treated at the Royal Perth Hospital for retained rectal foreign bodies. The foreign bodies that were retrieved and the age, sex and marital status of each patient are recorded and a number of the histories is presented. The complications that arose from either the insertion or removal of the foreign body are discussed, as are the methods of treatment that were employed. The various methods that the practitioner has at his disposal for dealing with this increasing problem are reviewed, and a plan of management of patients with non-perforating rectal foreign bodies is suggested.

Rectal foreign bodies.

This monograph comprises a review of the cardiovascular effects of the various types of antidepressant drugs in clinical use. The frequency, severity and clinical importance of these effects are placed in perspective. Most antidepressants can cause changes in blood pressure. Both the tricyclic type (TCA) and the monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) can produce postural hypotension which may be dose-limiting. In addition, the MAOIs may be associated with severe hypertension when amine-containing foods or medicines are ingested. It is unlikely that therapeutic doses of any available antidepressant drug could impair cardiac contractility. Typical TCAs can cause abnormalities of cardiac conduction and arrhythmias, but this affects less than 5% of patients, mostly to a clinically insignificant extent. Newer compounds such as lofepramine, mianserin, trazodone and viloxazine seem safer in this respect. Reports of an association between therapeutic use of TCAs and sudden death are far from convincing. Overdosage with the MAOIs, lithium and carbamazepine is dangerous but not common; overdose with a TCA is a major source of morbidity and mortality. Lofepramine, mianserin and trazodone are relatively safe in overdose. The use of various antidepressants in patients with hypertension, cardiac failure, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, or cardiac arrhythmias is discussed and guidelines suggested for the selection and use of antidepressant medication.

The Cardiovascular Effects of Antidepressants

The relationship between air lead and blood lead in children: A critical review

Blood lead levels (Pb B) were determined in 398 schoolchildren of varying ages living and attending school within close proximity of a smelter at Port Kembla. The air lead (Pb A) concentrations in the area had been recorded by three monitors, two of which recorded levels exceeding the safe air quality standard endorsed by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of 1.5 micrograms/m3. Blood lead levels in children in this study were found to be below 1.45 mumol/L, the maximum safe Pb B level as set by the NHMRC for individual children. The findings of this study were compared and discussed with other studies carried out in Australia. The survey finding of normal Pb B levels in the presence of elevated Pb A concentrations may be the result of Pb A existing in insoluble forms.

Cyril Innis

Papers

Blood lead levels in schoolchildren in the Port Kembla area.