Principal Urges POISON Spray Safety Changes
Click
Here to Add Comment Subject:
Principal Urges POISON Spray Safety Changes
Date:
Mon, 26 Aug 2002 10:47:15 -400
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: <clearance@inl.co.nz>
cc: Christine Whitman
whitman.christine@epa.gov
Principal urges spray safety changes
MONDAY , 26 AUGUST 2002
A Bay of Plenty principal wants safety rules governing chemical crop spraying changed after strange behaviour in pupils at his school was linked to a toxic spraydrift from a nearby orchard.
Mike Scaddan, principal of Te Puna Primary School, 10km northeast of Tauranga, wants chemical sprays to contain a biodegradable dye so that they leave a coloured trail whenever used.
Mr Scaddan's concerns follow the impact on his staff's and pupils' health of kiwifruit growth regulator hydrogen cyanamide - marketed as Hi-Cane - which is sprayed on dormant vines in August to promote budbreak and increase flowering.
Mr Scaddan believes the hormone spray drifted towards his school, causing behavioural changes in pupils and staff and other symptoms, including skin irritations, stomach upsets, respiratory problems and flushed faces.
He said he would take his request for a coloured spray to Prime Minister Helen Clark and ministers with portfolios in health, environment, agriculture, Occupational Health and Safety and education and Environment Bay of Plenty (BOP).
Environment BOP principal Compliance Officer Andy Bruere, said today he was aware of the claims but had not received a complaint from the school.
Mr Bruere said sprayers needed to comply with guidelines laid out under the Resource Management agency's and BOP's Air Plan on safe crop spraying.
Sprayers must act to stop spray drifting into "sensitive areas" near target crops, especially inhabited buildings, he said.
They should wait for a wind that would take spray away from those areas. "If (sprayers) don't comply with the Resource Management Act or the Air Plan they can be issued with an infringement notice", which carried a fine of up to $300, he said.
© You may not copy, republish or distribute this page or the content from it without having obtained written permission from the copyright owner. To enquire about copyright clearances contact clearance@inl.co.nz
If you would like to be included in our mailing list for continuing information on pesticides, please email us at list@safe2use.com.