Nicotine Sulphate To Be Withdrawn From Public Sale

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29401, 31 December 1960, Page 4

Nicotine Sulphate To Be Withdrawn From Public Sale

Deadly poisonous nicotine sulphate, responsible for" about onethird of poison cases coming before New Zealand coroners, is to be withdrawn from public sale as from September 1 next year. A protest by the Horticultural Seedsmen’s Association of New Zealand against the new ban has been countered by the Health Department The regulation was gazetted earlier this year after legislation in Parliament. Nicotine sulphate is used as a plant insecticide and is painted on poultry perches to kill lice. From September 1, its sale will be restriced to commercial growers.

The Director of Public Health, Dr. D. P. Kennedy, in replying to the protest of the seedsmen’s association, said that nicotine sulphate “is particularly dangerous in that it can be absorbed through the skin as well as being inhaled or swallowed.

“Once a poisonous quantity has been absorbed, even the most prompt and appropriate first-aid treatment and subsequent hospital treatment is seldom effective—that is, the mortality rate is extremely high,” said Dr. Kennedy. “In the very few instances where life is saved, the victim has suffered damage which is the cause of chronic disability for a very long period, and probably for life.

“While it is recognised that alternatives to nicotine sulphate may occasionally cause plant damage of a minor nature, this is considered of less importance than human death and disability.” Nicotine sulphate was one of several substances named in the Poisons Amendment Act of 1952 as “deadly poisons,” but left on sale to the public because suitable alternatives were not considered sufficiently available at the time. Like other poisons, every sale must be recorded in a special register by the seller. The manager of a garden requisites shop said yesterday morning that there was still some sale for nicotine sulphate, but that plenty of much better insecticides' were available for plant sprays and several good ones for poultry perches. As nicotine sulphate was only a fumigant and not a systemic poison, he added, its effectiveness was destroyed within half an hour after spraying, so that newly arriving insects or young larvae, hatching from eggs could swiftly reinfest a sprayed area. The modem systemic poisons, which penetrate the plant tissues, could kill insects which bit the plants as long as a fortnight afterwards. The proprietor of another shop said that he found difficulty in persuading some of his customers that the new pesticides were better, because “some of the old stagers have used nicotine sulphate all their lives, and won’t be put off it now.” The prejudice was gradually being overcome, however, and he now sold a much bigger proportion of the nonpoisonous sprays than a few years ago.

The Christchurch office of the Department of Health has prepared a circular warning holders of poison licences of the coming ban on nicotine sulphate. The circular will be sent out within the next few days.