by Sue Grey LLB(Hons), BSc (Biochemistry & Microbiology), RSHDipPHI Co-leader of NZ Outdoors Party, specialist in emerging legal issues and former DOC Nelson Marlborough legal advisor
Why it an empty 1080 poison sack found in shed classified as a heath risk for DOC staff, yet DOC says its contents can safely be aerially spread over land, forest, water, and trampers in a way that DOC knows will inevitably poison kea and other endangered and protected wildlife?
New Zealand uses far more deadly 1080 poison than any other country in the world, in its ongoing and apparently unwinnable ‘War on Nature”. It justifies this by claiming this poison is the only way to protect our native birds. DOC apparently fails to ever question whether this solution is effective or whether the means justifies the end.
There is compelling evidence that 1080 harms all ecosystems, and inevitably reduces biomass, if not biodiversity. Many report the silence of 1080 poisoned forests. change selects for the fastest adaptor. The research shows that rats have increasingly emerged as a “conservation threat” as more 1080 has been spread. The Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage promotes the aerial landscape scale spread of deadly 1080 poison over our ecosystems, based on propaganda that if this deadly poison is somehow both justified and necessary.
Not surprisingly many disagree with landscape scale chemical warfare. If poisoning our water, wildlife and kai is the answer, we surely need to ask better questions.
What is 1080?
1080 (sodium fluoroacetate) is a pesticide and also an insecticide. Depending on the environment its in, it metabolises to fluorocitrate, sodium fluoride or the greenhouse gas methyl fluoride (freon).
When I worked for DOC in 2006-2008 the then Director-General of Conservation Al Morrison introduced a new vision for DOC and toured NZ telling staff that our conservation estate was a trusted place for replenishing the fresh air and safe water that was essential for Clean Green NZ. Someone clearly forgot to tell his replacement.
What is 1080?
1080 (sodium fluoroacetate) is a pesticide and also an insecticide. Depending on the environment its in, it metabolises to fluorocitrate, sodium fluoride or the greenhouse gas methyl fluoride (freon).
1080 is a know threat to our foodchain, on occasion accidentally contaminating cows, sheep, pork, honey, trout, and milk. It is so toxic that a single bait can kill a small child or a calf, and an even smaller amount can kill a dog.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18c9NXa4NsZp5bzEm4WM8aP_Us41DjXXMuxkHHcqap3U/edit
Claims that it is natural so safe are at odds with the evidence https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5485738/
“Fluoroacetate producing plants grow worldwide and it is believed they produce this toxic compound as a defence mechanism against grazing by herbivores. Ingestion by livestock often results in fatal poisonings, which causes significant economic problems to commercial farmers in many countries such as Australia, Brazil and South Africa. Several approaches have been adopted to protect livestock from the toxicity with limited success including fencing, toxic plant eradication and agents that bind the toxin. Genetically modified bacteria capable of degrading fluoroacetate have been able to protect ruminants from fluoroacetate toxicity under experimental conditions but concerns over the release of these microbes into the environment have prevented the application of this technology.“
Terrorist type threats by government approved poisoner Jeremy Kerr to put 1080 in baby formula, created widespread fear for new parents and crippled our baby milk formula exports. After ongoing police enquiry which resulted in interrogation of pacifists around New Zealand, the police belatedly turned their focus to the handful of government approved poisoners who had access to the 100% pure form of the 1080 poison that had been posted with the threats.
Extracts from Crown v Kerr [2016] NZHC 416: http://www.nzlii.org/cgi-bin/sinodisp/nz/cases/NZHC/2016/416.html?query=Jeremy%20kerr%201080
“[11] For the purposes of sentence and this preliminary hearing in advance of sentence Mr Kerr accepts a summary of facts, which includes the following.
[12] Since 1981 he has held directorships in a range of New Zealand companies. A number of the companies developed a range of pest control products specifically to reduce the population of possums, rats, stoats and other rodents. In 1995, through Feral R & D Limited he developed and registered a cyanide based product named Feratox, a vertebrate toxic agent (VTA) normally used in conjunction with ground based trapping.
[13] The principal VTA used in the pest control industry is 1080. As a pest control agent 1080 is normally dispensed in pellet baits that are distributed aerially.
[14] Throughout New Zealand the use of 1080 as a pest control agent is opposed by a number of individuals and groups, many of whom feel that the environmental impact outweighs the benefits of the product in the eradication of the pests. Opposition groups range from minor political parties, for example the Ban 1080 Party, to facebook groups such as the 1080 Free Rolleston and Stop 1080 poison groups.
[15] Mr Kerr has had a long association with the use of 1080 and other toxins dating back to the 1990’s. In 2001 Mr Kerr was involved in researching and developing pest control products using 1080. He engaged Land Care Research NZ Limited to conduct testing on his behalf. He was in possession of amounts of high grade 1080 for these research purposes and supplied a quantity of it to Land Care Research for testing at the time.
[16] In 2004 Mr Kerr was involved in a study on the effects of gamma irradiation on 1080. That would have potentially allowed a Feral R & D Limited product containing 1080 to be used in Australia. He was in possession of amounts of high grade 1080 for research purposes and again supplied a quantity to Animal Control Products Limited (ACP) for testing at that time.
[17] Through his company, Connovation IP Limited (which I record is a completely separate company to Connovation Limited) Mr Kerr has 11 products registered for use in New Zealand on the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) Register, including Feratox. Connovation IP Limited owns the intellectual property rights for the products under a licence agreement between Connovation IP Limited and Connovation Limited made in March 2003 and receives payments from Connovation Limited which manufactures and sells the products.
[18] The royalty payments received by Mr Kerr since March 2003 have varied from a high of in excess of $250,000 for the year ended March 2003 to a low of just under
$88,000 in the year ended March 2012. In the year ended March 2015 they totalled $114,000 approximately.
[19] Mr Kerr accepts that in writing the letters to Fonterra and Federated Farmers he realised that the cessation of the use of 1080 nationally might result in a short-term increase in sales of non 1080 related VTA. However, as noted, he denies he was financially motivated in making the threats.
[20] Apart from his royalties income Mr Kerr also had a directorship in Natures Support Limited, which among other things, sells goods made of possum pelts.
Possum pelts contaminated by 1080 cannot be used for such products, but the pelts of possums killed by Feratox can be.
[21] The blackmail threats in the letters of November 2014 were reported to the police. The collective volume of the 1080 contained in the samples attached to the blackmail letters was analysed and confirmed sufficient to prove fatal to a number of infants. Following a preliminary assessment a serious crime investigation commenced. The investigation represented a major undertaking for the police over 10 months. It involved over 35 investigators and analysts with additional resources being seconded at different stages from other agencies and stakeholders. A number of other agencies and stakeholders became involved, primarily led by the Director-General of the Ministry of Primary Industries. “
DOC repeatedly poisons our water, forest and wildlife, killing takahe, kea and an array of other species, and poisoning insects, koura, trout and wild foods, as well as farmed stock that accidentally finds stray cereal baits.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/122221979/three-kea-killed-in-fiordland-during-1080-operation
Trampers are warned on the morning of a 1080 poison operation to stay inside the hut. It happened to visitors staying in a friend’s backpackers just this month, when their inland Abel Tasman overnight adventure was rudely interrupted by helicopters spreading deadly poison.
It was only persistent and experience dealing with DOC, and a series of hard questions, that protected my daughter and her Year 11 NCEA Outdoors Education class from the same fate on the Heaphy Track last year. Surely our teachers and a class of students deserve better than to be told to keep a class inside for the day in the middle of a 4-5 day remote trek to reduce risk from aerial poison.
curiously DOC does not always like to claim the consequences of its poison. last year DOC justified its landscape poisoning of Buller as necessary to manage a rat plague. However when dead rats washed up on Westcoast beaches down-river of the poison zone, DOC rejected the obvious explanation that their poisoned rats had washed downstream, and relied on a “Pied Piper” type theory without explaining what had happened to the plague of rats they had poisoned.
https://www.doc.govt.nz/news/media-releases/2019/testing-shows-no-1080-in-rats/
Curiously DOC treats 1080 as a much more serious threat when their own staff are exposed. Just an empty bag of “biodegradable 1080” found in a year or so after its contents were spread on unwitting communities becomes a reported and investigated health and safety threat when it happens to DOC staff.
Incident ID: 52887
Location: Ops Western SI : Greymouth
Date: 20 November 2018
Incident title: 1080 carry bag found in shared office
Hazard Source: Hazardous substances
Risk rating:
Accident Description:
I have an office space I share with 4 other staff. There is boxes of gear in our office – gear we use on a daily basis. I was sorting out gear for some upcoming field work and was rummaging through the boxes. I found, amongst one of the boxes of “vegetation monitoring” gear, a carry bag we use for carrying 1080 as part of our recent operations.
It is a canvas bag and has a tag on it saying 1080 with the hazard information on it. The bag was empty, no poison or poison bags inside the carry bag. The condition of the bag suggest it is a used bag, not a new bag. Since we have not had an operation since Sept 2018 the bag has likely been sitting in the office for at least 2 months.
At the time I was not wearing gloves when I grabbed the bag.
Immediate Corrective Action Taken:
Supervisor informed.
I put on nitrile gloves, placed the bag in a box, and carried it across to our gear shed. The bag is now stored in front of the pesticide store as I don’t have keys to access the back area in our herbicide and pesticide shed.
I also wiped down, with water, the gear and box this 1080 carrier bag was found in.
After logging this incident I plan on writing an email to all the staff that share this office so that they
are aware of the situation
Description of Findings:
Following interviews with all staff that could have any association with 1080 field operations I conclude that the bag is most likely to have been in this gear box since the early spring of 2017 ground operations carried out by either community group or contractor. Given the timeframe we are unlikely to be able to determine how the bag ended up in the gear box. It is not a bag used by the team at any time. The gear boxes should not be kept in the offices…….”
orksafe have been reported as prosecuting over the poisoning of a staff member at a Bromley factory (understood to supply to the Rolleston 1080 bait manufacturer that is part owned by Westcoast Regional Council). Th event was not publicly reported for weeks after an employee was admitted intensive care after accidental exposure to 1080 poison. If anyone knows outcome of the victims health or the prosecution please let me know. thttps://docs.google.com/document/d/18c9NXa4NsZp5bzEm4WM8aP_Us41DjXXMuxkHHcqap3U/edit
Precautionary approach
The current concern about Covid 19 has led to increased concern about health and safety, and a willingness to speculate about risks. Hypothetical solutions have been suggested (with many bureaucrats hoping a novel and minimally tested vaccine can be rushed through and until then we will be protected by scarfs and masks).
If our government is genuinely concerned about health and safety why is is still spreading deadly poison over so much of New Zealand? And why does it not adopt a more precautionary approach towards protecting public health and our environment?