Auckland - Government
forced to find medical aide for victims of their Btk spraying
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Subject: If you POISON "them", you should at least pay for any needed treatment
Date:
Wed, 13 Feb 2002 13:42:16 -0500
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of
California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
AUCKLAND
http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1101666a1500,FF.html#top
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is being asked to
fund urgent medical treatment for residents affected by the Btk spraying of the
painted apple moth.
The ministry gives free advice and patients are referred
back to their own doctors and made to pay for their own treatment.
The Waitakere City Council's environmental management
committee wants the ministry to rethink the policy following public health
concerns.
One of its main concerns involves the Auckland District
Health Board draft health impact assessment which, members claim, does not
adequately deal with the issue of children walking to school during spraying.
Kerry Bodmin, a council officer and member of the
ministry's technical advisory group, says otherwise healthy people have suffered
side effects, including respiratory problems, after spraying.
The Western Leader is also getting calls frorm people
claiming the spraying has made them ill.
They include councillor Annette Fenton who believes the
ministry is doing almost no follow-up with patients.
Ms Fenton says she asked a ministry doctor to contact her
GP - and is still waiting.
She believes the ministry's medical support programme and
the way her complaint has been handled are totally inappropriate.
Councillor Brenda Brady says many people contacting the
council don't have the money to see their doctors and get treatment.
"Schools also have to have something they can tap into
immediately, especially if children start to panic if they get a reaction to the
spray," says Mrs Brady. "It's up to MAF and the Auckland District
Health Board to provide a service on call."
Councillor Owen Hoskin, who is also principal of
Henderson
High School
, says schools can't alter their routines quickly to cope with the spraying
schedule which can change by the hour.
"Also boards of trustees have to consider the safety
of their schools," says Mr Hoskin. "Do the school insurers need to be
contacted just in case a student in 10 years wants to sue because of effects
from the spraying?"
The Auckland District Health Board's study says Btk has
been used for 35 years without causing major health problems.
Independent health adviser Francesca Kelly says an
experienced team is giving worried residents indiviual health management plans.
Ms Kelly encourages anyone with concerns to contact them.
Information, phone: 358-3206. For general inquiries about
the spraying campaign, phone: 0800-969696.
Quarry of wattle is low priority
Community concerns about a quarry which could be boosting
the spread of the painted apple moth have yet to be tackled by the Ministry of
Agriculture and Forestry.
The Waitakere quarry at
Te Henga Rd
, near the popular Cascades, has an abundance of wattle trees - the favoured
meal of the caterpillars targeted in the aerial spray campaign.
Waitakere
City
councillor Denise Yates fears the caterpillars could attach themselves to the
large number of trucks visiting the quarry daily.
The council's environmental management committee backs her
call for the ministry to monitor the area regularly.
But the quarry is not a priority in the ministry's plans to
eradicate the moth.
Other Western Leader sources, who do not want to be named,
fear caterpillars could drop from wattles on to the trucks.
The ministry's project director Ruth Frampton says problem
areas are identified through ongoing moth trapping surveys which show
Piha Rd
and
Scenic Drive
to be among priority sites.
"We haven't forgotten the quarry, it's just a matter
of prioritising," says Dr Frampton.
Ranges safe from spraying for now
The second round of painted apple moth aerial spraying, due
to start in west
Auckland
this week, will not target the
Waitakere
Ranges
- despite the discovery of male moths at
Scenic Dr
and
Piha Rd.
But future plans may still involve the area.
"There's a lot of work and consultation with the
community and other organisations to do," says Ministry of Agriculture and
Forestry project director Dr Ruth Frampton.
"At this stage, we're not able to advise what we're
going to do as it's too early to know."
Dr Frampton says the ministry's main focus remains in the
existing targeted spray area where most of the moths are being caught
She says preliminary host tests by its technical advisory
board are continuing to discover which trees the painted apple moth eats.
"So far the kowhai, karaka and rangiora are ones they
target."
Entomologist Peter Maddison, who first identified the
painted apple moth caterpillar in west
Auckland
, is growing increasingly angry as the possibility of spraying becomes more
likely in the ranges.
"The spray will affect all our other caterpillars,
including our native ones, and they are the food sources for other creatures.
Just at a time when we're trying to bring back native birds into the Waitakeres,
they're doing this. It's just a nonsense."
Dr Maddison is also concerned about an endangered moth
species in the area.
Community advisory board chairman Kubi Witten-Hannah agrees
damage to other wildlife will occur if blanket spraying is approved.
One of Watercare's reservoirs in the Waitakeres is also
being sealed in case of spray drift.
"It's a precautionary step to ensure the water gets
through to people's houses in A-grade state," says Watercare communications
manager Mathew Bolland.
The ministry has $11 million to spend on spraying up to 600
hectares in west
Auckland
. The current spray zone is 560ha.
The aerial operation aims to tackle heavily-infested,
hard-to-reach areas which can't be reached by ground spraying.
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