2,4,5-T given green light

Press, 18 June 1980, Page 1

2,4,5-T given green light

Parliamentary reporter

The controversial herbicide spray, 2,4,5-T, claimed to cause human birth defects, has been given the green light by the Agricultural Chemicals Board. It was safe when used in accordance with label instructions, the board said, after a main review of New Zealand and overseas data. The review showed that levels" of the dioxin contaminant in New Zealandmade 2,4,5-T 'were “probably not high enough to cause health problems.”

Dioxin levels were about one-fifth of the maximum permitted by regulations, said the board’s chairman (Mr P. J. Clark).

“Studies in Vietnam, Arizona, Lapland, Aus-

tralia, and New Zealand have not supported allegations linking 2,4,5-T with deformities in children,” he said.

The percentage of abnormalities among the 600 or so children born at full term after, the accidental release of about 2kg of dioxin ; over 200 ha near Seveso, in Italy,, had been below the Italian national average. No effects attributable to dioxin had been found in 34 legally aborted foetuses.

For comparison, about one gram of dioxin was released over 8000 ha of New Zealand farmland annually, Mr Clark said. Numerous studies had shown no evidence that dioxin accumulated in the environment.