Public misled about chemical risk — director

Press, 14 August 1978, Page 7

Public misled about chemical risk — director

PA New Plymouth. Extensive use of agricultural chemicals will be required to meet the world’s food needs which will treble in the next 25 years, says the chairman of Ivon Watkins=Dow, Ltd (Mr D. A. Watkins).

Opening the thirty-first annual conference of the Weed and Pest Control Society in New Plymouth, Mr Watkins said that the agricultural chemicals world was unravelling at the seams. "Will these chemicals continue to be available? I wish I could be sure,” he said.

It was strange, he said, that powerful elements in modern industrial societies

sought not just to control the growth of technology, particularly chemical technology, but to abolish it. There was a senseless yearning to reincorporate with nature, an odd malady that did not afflict the people of developing Countries who were striving desperately to escape the balance of nature and gain control of their destiny, Mr Watkins said. "Unlike some of us, they recognise that the growth of technology is the underlying base for health, wealth and all improvement in the human condition. “The trouble is that the public are being led to believe that all man-made chemicals are hazardous and that naturally occuring chemicals are not, when in fact no chemical is hazardous if properly' managed,” he said. The Dioxin contaminant in 2,4,5-T and other compounds had been branded as a chemical of incredibly high toxicity, and it was. “After all, it is a thou’ sand times more toxic than our most toxic pesticide. “But the botulism toxins

that can be formed io improperly canned foods are at least 50,000 times more poisonous than our most poisonous pesticide.” Everyone ingested about 40mg of pesticides each year, Mr Watkins said. "If we drink coffee, we ingest about 40.000 to 400,000 mg of caffeine each year, depending on whether we drink one or 10 cups a day. "A dose of caffeine equivalent to the amount in 100 to 200 cups can kill you,” he said. Neither the news media nor public agencies were accurately informing the-

public on the distinction between toxicity ana hazard, and the relationship of toxicant concentration to expression of toxicity, Mr Watkins said. “It is not my intention to paint a picture so bleak that you get discouraged , and give up. I would rath- ' er have you fighting mad. We in the pesticide industry have an enormously important job to control pests, improve health, and increase food and fibre production.” But a lot of misguided, cynical, and self-serving people were getting in the ; way, said Mr Watkins. I