Pesticide regulations ‘ineffective’

Press, 23 November 1988, Page 54

Pesticide regulations ‘ineffective’

By

JANE DUNBAR

Pesticide regulations in New Zealand are so ineffective they may as well not. exist, says the Canterbury Toxins Action Group.

The retail sale regulations, safety standards, labelling requirements and transport regulations of pesticides were ignored in New Zealand, said the group’s secretary, Mr Bryan Goulstone.

Instructions on the use of pesticides on the outside of products were often in small print and few people bothered to read them. It was imperative a better system of warnings and instructions to users was found, he said.

The group was disap-

pointed it was not invited to a seminar run by an international chemical company in Christchurch recently and disagreed with comments made in an article printed the next day, he said.

“We are well aware of the improvements in environmental safety that modern pesticides have over those manufactured in the past,” said Mr Goulstone.

But it was misleading for chemical companies to say risks were low as long as products were used properly.

The problem was that people did not use them properly, and paid little attention to regulations.

The companies also distributed large quantities of their products to Third World countries where safety equipment was not available, the users were not informed of the dangers, and they probably could not read the instructions anyway, he said. To say city people were less likely than rural people to recognise the benefits of pesticides was an insult to their intelligence, said Mr Goulstone. City dwellers were realising the benefits did not outweigh the disadvantages, he said. Spray drift and residual chemicals in water contributed to the ill-health of New Zealand’s population, he said.