Pesticide testing planned

- 1 February 1987

The Health Department was planning a study of pesticides and other Chemicals which New Zealanders might be consuming In food and water, said the acting departmental press officer, Mr John Boyd, yesterday.

The study follows up recommendations of a departmental task force report Issued yesterday which said that people might be ingesting small quantities of 2,4,5-T.

The 10-member committee of scientists, doctors, State servants, university lecturers. a lawyer and a union representative called for tests to find pesticide levels in the blood and tissues of the population. Food and water should also be tested to find residue levels of 2.4,9-T, paraquat and other “relevant pesticides,” it said. Mr Boyd said the research would widen dietary tests already - planned before the report was made.

“It is thought that we all have almost every commonly used chemical in our bodies,” he said. “The study will determine exactly what the levels are.”

Yesterday’s report comes from a body set up to look at Dr Matthew Tizard’s homeopathic methods of treating agricultural workers and Auckland firemen, who claim to have been poisoned by agricultural chemicals.

The task force said it was unable to find any scientific evidence to support the validity and reliability of the method of diagnosis, but Dr Tizard’s blood concentration figures for patients raised important questions.

“If we assume the analytical results are accurate, and possibly typical of the 2,4,5-T levels which may be found in the blood of the average New Zealander, what is their toxicological significance? There are limited data from which to answer this question.”

It was quite possible that low levels of 2,4,5-T might be detected in many apparently healthy New Zealanders with no history of contact with the chemical. The population might be subject to small regular intakes of 2,4,9-T residues through food and water said the committee.

The most likely source could be meat, because the herbicide was used to control weeds in pastures.

“It must be emphasised that the task force can find no data on 2,4,5-T levels in New Zealand meat, vegetables or drinking water,” the report said. “Until such time as these data are obtained, correct interpretation of Dr Tizard’s blood level data in relation to bis diagnosis of chronic pesticide poisoning is not possible.”