Call for urgent talks on cartoned milk

Press, 18 March 1989, Page 6

Call for urgent talks on cartoned milk

PA Wellington The Market Milk Federation yesterday called for an urgent meeting with the Minister of Health, Ms Clark, to discuss “the Health Department’s lack of positive action in reassuring consumers that milk in cartons is safe.”

Sales of cartoned milk have plummeted in Wellington after it was reported that the DSIR had found traces of dioxin in a small sample of cartoned milk. At the Health Department’s request, the D.S.I.R. is analysing cartoned milk and cream for dioxin levels but the results will not be known for six weeks. Ms Clark has asked consumers to “suspend judgment” on dioxin levels in the meantime. A big milk supplier, Capital Dairy Products, of Wellington, yesterday called for the Health Department to declare cartoned milk safe, saying a poison expert was unconcerned about traces of dioxin detected. The president of the federation, Mr Robin Mitchell, said the overwhelming weight of evidence already available showed that milk in cartons was safe. The federation represents all the country’s town milk producers and processors. "We will be making strong representations to the Minister of Health, Ms Clark, that shp cannot continue to sit on the fence on this matter.

“Asking consumers to ’suspend judgment’ for a four to six-week period while the D.S.I.R. completes its testing programme is totally unrealistic. “The point we feel must be made by the Health Department is that, even if dioxin is present in cartoned milk at trace parts per trillion levels, there is still no health risk,” Mr Mitchell said. “The remarks by the president of the Milk Vendors’ Federation, Mr John Houlihan, that milk cartons should be withdrawn and consumers should buy milk packed in other containers is irresponsible, destructive and motivated by self-interest. „ “Because officers of the Health Department do not have sufficient expertise in this matter we will be inviting the country’s leading authority on poisons, Dr Ralph Edwards, head of the National Poisons Centre, at the Dunedin Medical School, to attend the meeting.” Mr Mitchell said representatives of main milk stations throughout the country would also be invited, as well as representatives of the companies sup-

plying the industry’s carton requirements. The chief executive of Capital Dairy Products, Mr Norman Brooks, said there was plenty of expert opinion to enable the department to give cartoned milk an immediate clean bill of health. Dr Edwards said he was unconcerned about the minute levels discovered. “I shall not lose any sleep over it

in Wellington. Many dairy owners have reported noticeable drops in cartoned milk sales. The Consumers’ Institute has also called for the department to release an informative statement about the levels of dioxin found in cartoned milk.

“It’s unfortunate that some information has been made available but not the whole story,” said the institute’s testing and technical research manager, Mr Peter Sutton.

“Comapred with dioxin from other sources (such as) barbecues, burning wood on bonfires, it’s not going to worry me greatly.”

The department’s assistant health protection programme manager, Mr Len Welton, said the department would be irresponsible to comment without more information. “I think the department has been highly responsible in urgently asking for more information and not making pronouncements on the limited information we have now, which could grossly mislead a large number of people. “What we have been saying is that we have no information to suggest that consumers should change their buying habits,” he said.

The amount of dioxin in cartoned milk is suspected to be about one part per trillion which Dr Edwards said is an amount so small even scientists have trouble conceiving of it. Mr Tony Noble, a spokesman for the milk carton manufacturer, Tetra Pak, said dioxin had been found in the environment about the same level at which it existed in the paper board used for packaging. The finding is causing unease