POISONS ON FRUITS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28658, 7 August 1958, Page 18

POISONS ON FRUITS

Stricter Limits Wanted

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 6.

An urgent need for stronger legislation to deal with the increasing use of poisonous material in agriculture and horticulture is seen by Dr. L. S. Davis, director of the Division of Public Hygiene of the Department of Health. In his annual report to Parliament, tabled today, he suggests strengthening the food and drug regulations in regard to the limits for poisonous substances found on fruit or vegetables for sale. “In recent years, there has been a flood of new chemicals offered as commercial insecticides or plant therapeutants, many of them sufficiently dangerous to be classified as ‘deadly poison’ under the poisons legislation,” he says. Some of these are almost certain to be used by market gardeners and orchardists without proper regard to. the likelihood of harmful residues remaining on the crop when sold, he says. Not all manufacturers label their products with sufficient rules for their application in relation to the time of harvesting, the report says. New Zealand is not in a position to carry out any extensive testing of chemicals for their toxicity or to ascertain residues, and it must be guided largely by properly supervised investigations overseas. It is hoped that, before long, the department will be able to recommend to the Government the adoption of a simplified form of the tolerances expressed by the United States Federal Food and Drugs Administration, says the report.