Posts by Rosemary McDonald
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: What to make of the spray, in reply to mark taslov,
Our family found the whole experience beyond depressing.
We were not well versed in the whole issue of pesticides....and sometimes I wish I could turn back the clock and unlearn what I now know.
Successive governments have failed to address the issue of adverse effects on humans and the general environment of these "plant protection products".
There is big money to be made from pesticides...and big money to be made from pharmaceuticals....http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/8274192/French-winegrowers-warned-over-pesticide-use.html
-
Hard News: What to make of the spray, in reply to mark taslov,
"It is no light thing to be sprayed,
perhaps repeatedly, with some substance the ingredients of which are to
some extent confidential, and to have one's life substantially disrupted for
what may be a quite lengthy period of time."Mel Smith got it.
-
Hard News: What to make of the spray, in reply to Sacha,
You might have noticed Sacha, most wheelchair users are not compulsive handwashers....even though they are walking on them, so to speak. Peter will wash his hands when they are obviously soiled...but if he was bug obsessive....he'd always be at the sink.
Had we known, and had we had the spare water in our tanks, we would have washed those surfaces. (This stuff is used mostly during times of drought.)
Carbendazim can be absorbed through the skin, and can cause local irritation....kind of like prickly pins and needles. Peter has no feeling in his hands or arms to alert him something is amiss.
-
Hard News: What to make of the spray, in reply to tussock,
But they’re mostly very rare and located in people who are regularly exposed in relatively massive doses.
Hmmmm.
When family member with leukaemia was in hospital having chemo we got quite close with the nurses…as you do under very trying circumstances. Most of the patients on that ward were being treated for various forms of leukaemia/lymphoma.
The nurses were under no illusions whatsoever that many, if not most of these diseases were caused by exposure to pesticides.
There would be ‘clusters’ from quite specific areas. There was, at that particular time, three patients from a little known region in the lower end of Lake Taupo….they did not know each other, yet had various manifestations of the same disease.
Then there was three patients….one a kiwifruit grower, one owned a retail plant nursery and one a farm worker.
Then there was my guy.
Our property had been sprayed by the neighbour, using a helicopter, up to and over all three sides of our one acre property with carbendazim. Multiple times. We had asked what it was and we were assured by our Regional Council it was a harmless spray for facial excema.
Carbendazim is a known mutagen.
Carbendazim is a known skin sensitiser.
Carbendazim is acutely toxic and persistant in the soil and water environments.
Most importantly it is systemic, and when applied to plants, attracts strict witholding periods. I.e. Thou shalt NOT harvest this plant within 3-60 days(dependant on species).
This shit was being sprayed onto our property during the time we were harvesting.
Unfortunately, the crops we had growing closest to our boundary were the ones that my partner was the largest consumer of.
He also picked up the spray from the hard surfaces around our property on the pushrims and wheels of his wheelchair.Again…we asked….and no one told us how dangerous it was.
And yes, it is being ‘dumped’ on the NZ market to this day….even though it’s efficacy is limited as fungi rapidly develop resistance.
To combat this resistance….they simply increase the concentration.
And no one is enforcing what few regulations there are.
-
We didn't understand much about the epidemiology.
We do now.
Our family member who was diagnosed sits (literally) well outside the 'at risk' groups.
Having broken his neck some 40 years earlier, been an office worker, had not participated in any those risky activities/occupations......
If I developed leukaemia....it would be no big surprise, having worked on farms, in plant nurseries, handled timber and paints, and been a very keen dressmaker....although with increased awareness now of the risk factors....
I am not going to spend much time on trying to convince folk that there is widespread and largely unregulated use of substances that have been proven to cause significant adverse health effects in mammals....the research is there for those who want to learn. I could send you a file we put together just on carbendazim....
-
Our family used to believe the line "they wouldn't be allowed to use it if it wasn't safe."
Until a diagnosis of a rare chronic leukaemia in a family member who had no real reason to get it.
These leukaemias are almost invariably caused by exposure to something that causes the rapidly dividing cells in the blood/bone marrow to mutate.
Then we learned more about agrichemicals, MSDS, ERMA/EPA, regulations, NZ Standards, the RMA, epidemiological studies (from overseas, NZ data suspiciously scant), etc...then we ever wanted to know.
We should view these blood diseases as the canary in the coalmine, as an indication of just how safe our environment is. Not.
"Horrendously dark and convoluted...". You bet.
The chemical we were exposed to also causes fertility problems in both male and female lab animals.
It is one of those chemicals that is not only used in agriculture and horticulture, but as a timber treatment, in rubber and plastics. It is also used to treat fabrics...to prevent mould whilst in transit. Remember the (literal) stink about shipping containers leaking formaldehyde and making port workers ill? Well, formaldehyde can be detected using a probe...if its there....the workers don't touch the container. What to use instead? Carbendazim. Pretty scary really how widely used the stuff is.
Not surprising that the only NZ occupation/leukaemia study had workers in environments where carbendazim is often found high on the list.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18953052 -
Hard News: What to make of the spray, in reply to mark taslov,
and here....http://www.acc.co.nz/PRD_EXT_CSMP/groups/external_providers/documents/guide/dis_ctrb097503.pdf
"Occupational causes of
malignant neoplasms of lymphatic
and haematopoietic tissue"an interesting little missive from ACC.
"Potential occupational causes
should be considered in all presenting
adult cases of these diseases,
and detailed occupational histories"."Unless providers ask questions
about occupational exposure when presented with this group
of malignancies, the number of claims that are submitted
and those that may then warrant entitlements will be small.And yes, agrichemicals/pesticides are listed.
And yes, "occupational exposure" can also mean that you were exposed while someone else was using the chemical in the course of their occupation.
-
If I could perhaps jump in...
how about being exposed to this; https://store.nzfarmsource.co.nz/catalog/bell-booth-x-spore-20l/212445
when the concentration of the active ingredient required to cause these;
is about 1000X less than the reccommended dose.
We didn't find this out until after the leukaemia was diagnosed.
-
Hard News: Doing over the witness, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Without the camera footage.....the IPCA would have backed the Police.
Betcha.
-
Hard News: Doing over the witness, in reply to izogi,
The police are far from perfect, but I still think they’ve proven to be fairly independent.
I’m as concerned about whether those making the decisions in the Police are competent as I am about whether they’re independent.
It doesn’t necessarily take a secret meeting and a direct request from the PM or another Minister for police to make a dumb and/or badly biased decision about which avenues are most important to investigate.
Can I add my name to the list of those who have had their home searched by the NZ Police?
Seems to be a significant number of us here.
I will also add my name to the list of those who found the NZ Police had made dumb or badly biased decisions about which avenues are most important to investigate.
(Are they stupid or corrupt????)
Once on the receiving end of such attention, when the smoke has cleared and the actual facts float to the top, one's attitude towards the NZ Police changes forever.