Report urges change to spray campaigns

By ANNE BESTON environment reporter

Changes may need to be made to the way biosecurity campaigns are carried out, says an author of a controversial report into West Auckland's $100 million painted apple moth campaign.

The Wellington School of Medicine report into the health effects of the Foray 48B spray, used against painted apple moth since 2002, was released yesterday. The Ministry of Health, which commissioned the study, had been accused of delaying its release.

Researcher Dr Kevin Dew said the eight authors stood by their work even though expert reviewers had criticised it.

"If we are going to have similar situations [to painted apple moth], we need more information to, at minimum, reassure the public or alternatively to reassess how we go about doing these things," he said.

The report also questioned the Environmental Risk Management Authority's assessment of the spray's safety.

Green MP Sue Kedgley said the study justified community concern over the spray programme and called for it to be stopped. Reassurance from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Erma that the programme was safe were "based on false and erroneous assumptions", she said.

But Ministry of Health acting director of public health Ashley Bloomfield said the 2 per cent of West Aucklanders who reported effects from the spray were in line with international findings.

The report had not recommended the operation be stopped, he said.

"None of the scientific studies to date have found any association between exposure to the spray and actual health effects."

Mr Bloomfield said the report's "theoretical question" on whether biological insecticides could contribute to chronic respiratory conditions such as asthma, would be addressed and the Ministry of Health would seek more information, possibly from overseas.

The Foray 48B spray, or Btk, contains Bacillus thurigensis, a spore-producing bacterium toxic to some insects and commonly found in soil.

MAF director of forest biosecurity Peter Thomson said the report made clear that officials would have to do more to get community support for future biosecurity operations.

However, reviewers have criticised the narrow range of the focus groups questioned for the report. The focus groups contained only Maori, Pacific Islanders and immigrants. But the authors said those groups were unlikely to have made their views known in other surveys.

Another criticism was that people were invited to participate, and those who supported the spray programme were unlikely to respond.

Independent report for the Ministry of Health

Potential health effects of painted apple moth aerial spray