Category: Uncategorized

Welcome to Poison-Free Coromandel!

by manukapath, posted in Uncategorized

Time to increase glyphosate residues in our food, or past time to update Glyphosate’s risk assessment?

by Stephanie McKee

Did you know that New Zealand Food Safety wants to increase the maximum allowable residue (MAR) level of glyphosate in foods one-hundred fold? (1)

For whose benefit? Not for the health and safety of consumers, that’s for sure. The Environmental Law Initiative states:

“There are around 90 different formulations of glyphosate-based herbicide in Aotearoa. In many of these formulations, glyphosate is mixed with other chemicals that are designed to maximise glyphosate’s effects. Many of these co-formulants are known to be more toxic than glyphosate itself and can also act to increase glyphosate’s toxicity. The “forever chemical,” POEA (Polyethoxylated tallow amine), is an example of a highly controversial co-formulant that is currently available in New Zealand despite being banned overseas”

Some observers assume that the proposed increase in residue levels is in preparation for introducing genetically engineered, Roundup ready crops into GE Free Aotearoa.

Some good news: The Environmental Law Initiative (ELI) is challenging the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) with a judicial review in the Supreme Court. The ELI’s case asserts that the EPA’s decision not to do an updated risk-assessment on glyphosate is unlawful, given new scientific evidence and research. The last time the EPA did a proper risk-assessment on Glyphosate was in the 1970s and they cannot even find the records for it! (2)

Roadside Spraying on the Coromandel Peninsula

Last time I asked, our local Council was spending over a million dollars annually on road-side spraying on the Coromandel Peninsula, and the spray being used was AG-Pro Glyphosate 500. The manufacturer’s SDS Safety Data Sheet calls Glyphosate ‘ecotoxic; and instructs that it must be kept out of ‘aquatic systems’ .

‘Prevent from entering drains, waterways or sewers. If spill does enter waterways immediately contact local authority.” (5)

So who do you contact when it is the local authority’s contractors themselves who are spraying hundreds of kilometers of roadside drains on the Coromandel Peninsula?

Why should Glyphosate be subject to an updated risk-assessment?

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Te Kaitiaki Taiao a Te Whare Pāremata, Simon Upton, explains this clearly in his March 2022 report, ‘Knowing What’s Out There: Regulating the Environmental Fate of Chemicals’:

“The rules about how a chemical can be used shouldn’t be static – we need to be able to adapt as new information comes to light. Restrictions should be based on the latest science and informed by New Zealand-specific data on use and impact.” (3)

Some of this recent independent evidence about Glyphosate is very concerning. (Independent evidence is not funded and supplied by the manufacturer, Bayer.) The ELI has gathered independent scientific evidence for their judicial review and it should make alarm bells ring:

“There is evidence that glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides have negative impacts on a wide range of taxonomic groups including bees, soil microbiota, aquatic invertebrates, fish, non-target plants, terrestrial invertebrates, and vertebrates.

Our application also collates independent scientific evidence of glyphosate and glyphosate- based herbicides’ impacts on the human nervous system, human endocrine system, and as a probable human carcinogen. For example, a recent meta-analysis showed that individuals exposed to glyphosate-based herbicides have a 41% increase in risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.’ ( 5)

Actions: Download your Spray Free Zone Sign here and post it up on your roadside verge. Plant native pollinators for the bees. https://floraandfaunaaotearoa.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/sprayfreesign.pdf

How to use the TCDC No-Spray register: contact TCDC Customer Services on 07 868 0200. https://www.tcdc.govt.nz/Our-Services/Wildlife-Insects-and- Vegetation/No-Spray-Register

Poison-Free Coromandel, not only ‘Good for your Soul’ but also ‘Good for your Health’.

In 2023, COBY presented to the Colville Coromandel Community Board a proposal and vision for a Poison-Free Coromandel, putting the case that a poison-free zone would be not only good for our health but also good for eco-tourism, a growing niche market for Peninsula businesses.

Besides tourism, there is the local honey industry to consider. In 2021, Japan blocked shipments of New Zealand honey after testing found traces of glyphosate exceeding its standard of 0.01 milligrams per kilogram. (6)

Do visitors to the Coromandel really enjoy seeing all the road edges, drains, picnic tables and even children’s playgrounds with the toxic yellowed sprayed edges?

Wouldn’t our tourist guests and local residents alike prefer to see a sign saying,

Welcome to Poison-Free Coromandel.

Good for your Soul.

Good for your Health.

Good for the Planet.

References:

(1) Increasing Glyphosate residue limits: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/561251/nz-food-safety-proposes-increasing-residue-limits-of-insecticides-pesticides-in-food

(2) Environmental Law Initiative: https://www.eli.org.nz/cases/glyphosate

(3) Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment: https://www.pce.parliament.nz/publications/regulating-the-environmental-fate-of-chemicals

(4) Safety Data Sheet for Agpro Glyphosate: https://agpro.co.nz/downloads/sds-grasidim-qreyp.pdf

(5) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1383574218300887?via%3Dihub

(6) Honey exports at risk: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/434807/japan-warns-it-will-block-nz-honey-shipments-if-glyphosate-limits-breached

Kiwi Population Thrives on Western Moehau – with no poisons, no interference from humans.

by manukapath, posted in Uncategorized

In the Waiaro catchment , western Moehau range, Kiwi call rates were found to be twice as high as other high density kiwi populations on the Coromandel Peninsula.

This was the result from a kiwi survey, commissioned by the Waiaro Sanctuary, carried out by Red Admiral Ecology in the Spring of 2018. After recent numerous kiwi had been killed by dogs on private property in Port Charles, Waiaro Sanctuary manager Kelvin Mouritsen wanted to check on the health of the kiwi population on the western side of the mountain.

Waiaro Sanctuary uses no poisons in pest management, nor is it using practices such as microchipping, banding, or adding transmitters to kiwi to monitor them. Nor does the Sanctuary allow the removal of kiwi eggs as happens in the Moehau Environment Group/Department of Conservation programmes on the Eastern Moehau.

1080 kills Weta

by manukapath, posted in Uncategorized
Fern design on the weta’s legs – awesome!
1080-kills-weta POSTERDownload

1080 is an insecticide.
It kills beetles, earwigs, weta, grubs and
insects on the forest floor.

Then tiny birds eat the insects and die.
Tomtits, robins, grey warbler, whitehead and silvereye
die from secondary poisoning. Download and share the poster.

References:

  1. Meads M. Effect of sodium monofluoroacetate (1080) on non target invertebrates of Whitecliffs Conservation Area, Taranaki. Unpublished; Landcare Research Contract Report: LC9394/126 (1994).

  2. Lloyd & McQueen: Secondary Poisoning of Insectivores. NZ Journal of Ecology, 2000.

Time to ban brodifacoum too.

by manukapath, posted in Uncategorized

Ignorance and Unintended Consequences

It has been reported recently how four tuatara have died from eating cockroaches who were stuffed full of brodifacoum bait. This happened at Nelson “Natureland Zoo”. Remarkably, the Zoo director stated that he had not heard of brodifacoum until recently. Link to article:

Did you know that the profits of the Pest-Off state-owned enterprise Orillion ( rebranded from Animal Control Products) have trebeled since the start of Predator Free 2050 campaign? Orillion has warned the government that it will “seek compensation” , ie sue them , if their business is put at risk by any banning of pesticides. That’s why we call it “the poison-industrial complex” – a whole web of companies who are profiting from the normalisation of poisons in conservation.

Interestingly, Orillion observed in its 2018 – 2020 Statement of Corporate Intent that there are, “ continued international trends away from the use of second generation anti-coagulant products and introductions of new controls on their use.” Unfortunately too late for those Tuataras.

Brodifacoum, which had the trade-name of Talon back in the 1990s, was used all over Te Moehau and the Colville hills in an attempt to control rats. It was being used on our land too, the watershed draining into Waikawau Bay, until doing research quickly raised red flags about brodifacoum and the risk of secondary poisoning of ruru, our beloved native predator Morepork. (Note 2) Immediately we stopped using it and went further to ban the use of all poisons on our land. As providers of drinking water, we also have a responsibility to keep our watershed pure and uncontaminated. But it is still available at every supermarket!

Also brodifacoum has been found in the livers of wild pigs.( Note 3). This is concerning: many rural people depend on healthy wildlife to put food on the table, or harvesting of rongoa. The ongoing use of poisons continues all over the hills for the control of a list of unwanted species. Besides all these issues, the concern about the cruelty of these poisons is often swept aside with “the end justifies the means” mind-set.

History shows us that with pesticides and herbicides problems inevitably arise over time : persistence in the ecosystem, sublethal effects on the health of biota, and of the development of chemical resistance.(A current example is Drench resistance in sheep farming )

So it is just tragic that four of our precious ancient Tuatara were killed unnecessarily – by a lethal mix of rat poison and human ignorance.

References:

1. The only confirmed report of secondary poisoning of insectivorous birds with brodifacoum was in a zoo, where avocets, rufous-throated ant pittas, golden plovers, honey creepers, finches, thrushes, warblers, and crakes died in an aviary after feeding on pavement ants and cockroaches that had eaten brodifacoum baits (Godfrey 1985).

Godfrey, M.E.R. 1985: Non-target and secondary poisoning hazards of ‘second generation’ anticoagulants. Acta Zoologica Fennica 173: 209–212.

Source of above references: Vertebrate Pesticide Toxicology Manual (Poisons) Information on Poisons Used in New Zealand as Vertebrate Pesticides 2nd Edition (formerly the‘Toxins Manual’) by Charles T. Eason and Mark Wickstrom, 1987 .

2. The detection of brodifacoum residues in a range of wildlife including native birds such as kiwi (Apteryx spp.) (Robertson et al. 1993), raises serious concerns about the long-term effects of broad-scale field use of brodifacoum in New Zealand. This is compounded by the recent detection of residues in a wide range of species: weka, morepork, Australian harrier, pukeko, grey duck, mallard, black-backed gull, robin, saddleback, chaffinch, mynah, magpie, and blackbird (Murphy et al. 1998; Dowding et al. 1999; G.R.G. Wright, pers. comm.)page 63

3. Murphy, E.C.; Clapperton, B.K.; Bradfield, P.M.F.; Speed, H.J. 1998: Brodifacoum residues in target and non-target animals following large-scale poison operations in New Zealand podocarp– hardwood forests. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 25: 307–314.

Dowding, J.E.; Murphy, E.C.; Veitch, C.R. 1999: Brodifacoum residues in target and non- target species following an aerial poisoning operation on Motuihe Island, Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 23): 207–214.

These recently acquired residue results reinforce earlier recommendations that pigs and possums should not be hunted for human consumption, from areas where baits containing brodifacoum have been used for possum control, for at least 9 months after the application of the baits (Eason et al. 1996d).

Eason, C.T.; Spurr, E.B. 1995: Review of the toxicity and impacts of brodifacoum on non-target wildlife in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 22: 371–379.