Potential long term impacts of 1080 use ignored

Green Party Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons is disappointed that ERMA has not properly studied and evaluated the long term toxicity of 1080 in their report released today.

"For years, both sides of the debate have been flinging research papers at each other, some suggesting 1080 is an endocrine disrupter with a number of long term toxic effects, others suggesting it is harmless.

"It is a huge job for concerned citizens to try to evaluate all that evidence and reach a conclusion. That is what we had hoped ERMA would do for us. But there is no evidence they took this approach.

“At most, ERMA seems to have looked at the adverse effects of 1080 only for those people directly involved in manufacturing and applying it, and the Greens welcome the calls for stricter controls in those areas.

“However, I would have expected ERMA to have taken this opportunity to address the potential cumulative impact of 1080 on the reproductive, hormonal and endocrinal systems of the population at large. That is the main area of public concern, and was a recurring point in the submissions ERMA received. We drop a lot of 1080 from the air, and don't know to what extent it gets into our drinking water and into the food chain. We need to know a lot more about what the effects are, and the risks we are running,” Ms Fitzsimons says.

“ERMA has simply not engaged with this key issue of 1080’s chronic toxicity. For instance, there is no sign in this report that ERMA has conducted a review of the considerable overseas literature on 1080’s toxicology, and of the relevance of that data to New Zealand.

“This omission is all the more surprising given that an earlier ERMA summary document stated in April that ‘The major adverse effects on human health of 1080 may be reproductive effects ( reduced fertility) and the target organ toxic effects on the heart.’ That is why, until we have more evidence on the toxicological effects, we are opposed to using it around homes, farms and drinking water supplies.

“The Greens’ position has been that the aerial use of 1080 in remote areas is still at present a vital tool in the control of pests. 1080 is currently something of a necessary evil in those contexts. However, alternative ground based alternative methods such as trapping and bait stations should be used wherever possible.

“By and large, ERMA has endorsed that two handed approach. In passing, the Greens welcome ERMA’s advocacy of a monitoring system for the impact of aerial drops, its support for alternative methods and for research into adverse effects on those using 1080..

“The wider reality though, is that we do not know what dangers 1080 may pose that go beyond the relatively few people directly engaged in making and distributing it. The public signalled in their submissions that they want answers about the effects of ingesting cumulative, sub-lethal amounts of this poison, as it passes through our drinking water and the food chain. Unfortunately, this report gives them precious little guidance,” Ms Fitzsimons says.