NZ gets exemption from ozone protection agreement

Sue Kedgley

New Zealanders slurping down their strawberries and cream this Christmas should know that part of the price they will pay for the treat next year may be a bigger hole in the ozone layer, the Green Party says.

Developed countries -- including New Zealand - promised in a 1987 treaty to stop using the chemical methyl bromide to sterilise soil by the end of December 2004.

But New Zealand last month sought -- and was granted -- an exemption to its agreement, along with 10 other countries, led by the United States.

The original commitment was made under the United Nations' 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, and Green Party health spokeswoman Sue Kedgley said today the Government had broken its promise under the treaty.

She said that in addition, the Government had effectively boosted by 100 per cent the amount of methyl bromide to be made available to strawberry growers. "So much for a commitment to protect the ozone layer," she said in a statement.

The Montreal Protocol established a system by which nations would gradually eliminate chemicals that destroy the ozone layer, which prevents ultraviolet light from reaching the earth and harming living things.

Methyl bromide is one of the last of the major chemicals to be phased out, and has been grouped with fluorohydrocarbons as one of the most ozone-destructive gases. Damage to parts of the ozone layer lets in harmful radiation, which significantly reduces the burn times of skin exposed to direct sunlight. Agricultural crops can also be affected by this radiation.

Under the protocol, wealthy nations such as New Zealand and the United States are required to cut production of methyl bromide by 70 per cent in 2003 and eliminate it completely by January 1, 2005.

New Zealand passed the Ozone Layer Protection Act 1996 to help meet its obligations: the phase-out process for general use was stepped down in 2001 to 60 per cent of what was consumed in 1991, with a target for 2003 of 75 per cent of the 1991 consumption, in preparation for a complete phase-out by 2005.

Of the total methyl bromide used in NZ horticulture, approximately 65 per cent is consumed by the strawberry industry and lesser amounts by the apple, tomato and cut flower industries.

Organic amendments, crop rotation, plant extracts, changed management practices, changed cultural practices, heat, biological controls, and targeted plant breeding have all be suggested as possible non-chemical alternatives.

But a spokeswoman for Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton said today that exemptions for "critical" agricultural use were permitted under the protocol and so far no suitable alternatives for use in growing strawberries had been found.

"Alternative chemicals have been tried, but they do not appear to work" she said.

Substitutes worked in the short-term, but not over a longer period when pest and disease organisms built up in the soil.

"Strawberry growers have said the industry will not be viable in 2005 using the currently available alternatives," she said.

The Government had approved an application for money from the sustainable farming fund for a three-year research project into viable alternatives to methyl bromide as a soil fumigant.

Ms Kedgley said that the use of 40.5 tonnes would destroy 20.46 tonnes of ozone in the atmosphere's ozone layer. Her calculations indicated that this would widen the hole in the ozone layer by 8.1 square kilometres a year -- increasing the harmful ultraviolet rays reaching the earth's surface.

"New Zealand made a commitment to stop using methyl bromide for agricultural purposes by January 2005, when it ratified the Montreal Protocol in 1988," she said. "It is shocking that the government has quietly reneged on this commitment".

New Zealand public health officials have launched an investigation into a cluster of deaths at Port Nelson from a rare degenerative brain disease to try to establish if they are linked with methyl bromide gas.

Occupational Safety and Health is also to investigate the feasibility of a nationwide, controlled case study into motor neurone disease and possible workplace links with the toxic fumigant.

- NZPA