State clamps down on 2,4,5-T

Press, 9 June 1978, Page 4

State clamps down on 2,4,5-T

By OLIVER RIDDELL A herbicide cleared for use in New Zealand. 2,4.5-T. has been partially banned by the Victorian state Government, and is being investigated by the Australian Federal Government. These moves stem from continuing concern there about the relationship of the spray with two birth defects — spina bifida and anencephaly. A report by the Health Department here last year cleared the spray, but many still have grave doubts about it. In New South Wales, a clustering of the birth defects has been adjudged by Dr I Barbara Field, of the School! of Public Health and Tropical; Medicine at Sydney University, to suggest that 2,4,5-T might have been involved. She found a statistically, significant cluster of defects. I but said they could not be constituted as absolute proof of a connection with 2,4,5-T. Meanwhile, the Victorian state Government has initiated an inquiry into 2,4,5-T, and the similar herbicide 2.4-D. This follows the suggestion that the two sprays may have been responsible for a cluster of birth defects. Victoria has banned the

.use of the sprays by its own ! servants until the inquiry has been completed, while the Federal Government in Can- ; berra has called on the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation to prepare a report as I well. ; The continuing suspicion of 12,4.5-T has been focused on its dioxin contaminant. There has been a series of research programmes on dioxin both here and overseas. This research has found that 2,4,5-T and its dioxin contaminant had a very high assurance, of safety in normal use. The report by the Health ; Department here concluded ■that “there is no evidence to I implicate 2,4,5-T as a factor 1 in human birth defects.” The only problem with this I conclusion is that it does not say that 2,4,5-T is not “guilty,” only that there is; no evidence that it is ’ “guilty.” This is not the same thing at all, and provides! scope for those who still sus-1 pect it is “guilty.” Until 2,4,5-T can be shown to be innocent of any connection with the two birth defects, the fact that it cannot be proved “guilty” will not satisfy everyone. A report which was to be!

■presented to the Australia Senate yesterday was ex pected to call for a tighteninj up of investigative procei ■ ures on pesticides, politic! sources told N.Z.P.A. in Can berra. The report, said thi sources, would suggest the systematic collection of dat) lon the incidence of cancer* and birth defects in area? where the pesticides had beej used. The Queensland Healtji Minister (Dr L. Edwards) will tomorrow go to Cairns in the far north of the State tc make a first-hand check oa allegations that new-born irf. fants are being affected bj 12,4,5-T use in the area. ■ It was asserted last weekend in Cairns that as many ■as 6 per cent of new-borh I children in the area had shown genetic abnormalities, compared with a national rate of 1 per cent. ' Since then, there hav» been widespread calls for the Queensland Government to ban the use of 2,4,5-T. In New South Wales, Dr William Mcßride, discovered of the link between thalidomide in defects in new-born babies, announced he would begin an investigation next week into the assertions of a link.