Some flour traced

Press, 7 September 1976, Page 1

Some flour traced

Only four of the 100 bags of flour believed to have been contaminated with mercury and sold in Christchurch last month have been recovered by the Department of Health. The flour became contaminated in the mill of D. H. Brown and Son, Ltd, in Christchurch when two vials of mercury were accidentally released into a flour packing hopper. It is believed that all the bags containing mercury were sold at the Northlands shopping centre between August 13 and August 20. The senior inspector for the Health Department in Christchurch (Mr R. S. Parr) said that department staff were busy answering

inquiries about the flour. Three sacks of the flour were recovered in Christchurch and the fourth in Darfield.

"We are relying on people to telephone or bring the flour in for testing,” said Mr Parr.

The flour was packed tn 5 kg bags and was sold under the "Home Life” label. Each bag has a numbered tag, the numbers being from 142127 to 142227. The manager of D. H. Brown and Son (Mr C. E. Rollinson), said that it was unlikely that all 100 bags were contaminated. The contaminated flour, when heated, could give off toxic fumes which could make a person feel sick. The fate of the date shipment landed recently at Lyttelton may be known within the next few days.

A shipment of more than 20,000 cases of dates arrived on August 17 on board the Pacific Daisy—the first dat is to reach the South island in more than 12 months. But the Customs Department has yet to release the dates for distribution because health authorities were unhappy with the unusually heavy infestation of insects and Frass in the shipment. A spokesman for the Health Department said yesterday that the importers had agreed to move the shipment from Lyttelton to Christchurch where the cartons could be hand sorted and cleaned up. The dates were expected to be ready for a second inspection by the Health Department some time this week, the spokesman said.