DDT Is STILL Being Used In New Zealand
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DDT Is STILL Being Used In New Zealand Despite Being Banned Over 30 Years Ago!
Date:
Fri, 3 Jan 2003 10:20:34 -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
cc: clearance@inl.co.nz
Fonterra takes 3½ months to give farmers results of DDT tests
SATURDAY , 28 DECEMBER 2002
Dairy giant Fonterra says there are no public health implications from a computer glitch which left hundreds of farmers without the results of tests for traces of the carcinogenic pesticide DDT.
A problem with Fonterra's new Aspire computer system in September meant farmers did not receive the results of tests on their milk for DDE, which is a by-product of DDT.
DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) was used throughout New Zealand to kill grass grubs and caterpillars and is still found on some farms scattered throughout the country, despite being banned about 1970.
Some countries in affluent northern hemisphere markets will not accept dairy produce containing high levels of DDT and its breakdown compounds such as DDE. Long-term exposure has been associated with chronic ailments in humans
Cows take in DDT through ingesting soil with pasture, and when this happens during winter, residue levels are highest in milk just after calving.
Farmers whose herds have with high levels of DDT are given "grades" on their milk supply which will result in financial penalties if they fail to fix the problem.
Fonterra wrote to more than 200 suppliers just before Christmas to apologise for failing to provide farmers with test results, and the company has also agreed to wipe any financial penalties incurred by farms affected.
Fonterra's field and technical services manager, Shane Lodge, said the glitch had been fixed, and stressed it did not have implications for food safety.
While farmers had not received their results, testing had continued and none of the farms affected had got anywhere close to the cut-off point - 0.2 parts DDE per one million - to which Fonterra tests.
The New Zealand standard is 1 part per million, but 95 per cent of the nation's milk production is processed and exported, much of it to markets which take a strict line on DDT residues.
Mr Lodge said: "It's not a food safety issue at the levels we are testing to. There was no-one anywhere close to the cut-off point. If there had been anyone near their supply would have been stopped."
But the time taken to let Fonterra suppliers know about the problem has left dairy farmers unimpressed.
An industry source said: "The fact that it took from September 12 until Christmas for them to discover there was a problem seems very poor. If you've got a problem you want to know right away."
Dairy Farmers New Zealand chairman Kevin Wooding said the timing of the letter - two days before Christmas - raised the suspicion Fonterra hoped the break would take the sting out of the problem.
"I think our farmers will accept it (the wiping of the penalties) as a Christmas present. Fonterra's been fair about it - they would have had a fight on their hands if they tried to introduce retrospective penalties."
But he said farmers would be concerned such a mistake could be made.
"You wouldn't have thought they would have missed the test results. They're too important. Farmers tend to lose confidence in the procedures which isn't good."
Mr Lodge said the amount of penalties wiped would vary from farm to farm.
DDT was applied to New Zealand pastures in large quantities in the 1960s to kill grass grubs and - in Northland - black beetles and crickets.
It was even added to fertiliser applied to pastoral land, and DDT dusts, wettable powders and emulsifiable concentrates were developed for use in the horticultural industry.
The pesticide was largely banned from farms after residues began showing up in meat exported the United States in 1961, but in some areas farmers applied such large amounts that there are still residues in the soil that can be taken in by cows.
Following the restrictions on individual farmers using of DDT, big quantities of the pesticide were collected and stockpiled on sites throughout the country for disposal.
In 1963 and 1964 the insecticides were sprayed by air over 12,000ha of Department of Lands and Survey land nationally, more than a quarter of it in Northland on 3650ha in 12 blocks.
The used insecticide containers were in some cases burned at the farm airstrips used during the spraying, then covered over, in some cases leaving contaminated "hotspots".
In the past year, Fonterra has been testing not only farms already supplying milk, but the soil on farms for potential dairy conversions.
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