Kedgley Sue: General Debates 
Kedgley Sue: General Debates 
[Volume:608;Page:5482] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 On Sunday the residents of west Auckland finally found out the ingredients of a spray that they have been aerially bombarded with for more than 17 months. One would have thought that the public had an absolute right to know what they were being blanket-sprayed with especially given that 260 schools and early childcare establishments are located in the spray zone and given that the exposure levels to the spray now being experienced by west Aucklanders are without precedent anywhere else in the world. Next Tuesday residents will be exposed to their 20th spray but some residents who have the misfortune to live in so-called hot spots have been sprayed double that amount. However this Government refuses point-blank to disclose that information bowing instead to the wishes of a multinational corporation to protect the secrecy of its formula ahead of the public’s right to know and the health needs of the people of Auckland. 
So it has fallen to the painted apple moth campaigners Dr Muriel Watts and Hanna Blackmore to turn themselves into detectives and piece together the ingredients of the spray from papers supplied to them under the Official Information Act. I would like to table the contents of the inert ingredients of the spray in the House today and also to call on the Minister to release the list of ingredients that have been used in the spray since February of this year when officials say that the formula changed in some respect. 
Looking at the list of ingredients that make up this toxic product we see that we now have proof of what west Aucklanders have been saying for months. The spray contains chemicals that are injurious to health and that have never been tested for their interaction or for their long-term health effects; nor has the effect of inhaling rather than ingesting these chemicals ever been taken into account. Indeed from looking at the ingredients it is no wonder that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Government have been so obsessive in keeping the spray formula secret for although the Minister of Agriculture has repeatedly reassured the public that the inert ingredients in the spray are commonplace in food and cosmetics he has failed to mention that they are also commonplace in solvents shoe polishes and brake fluids. One ingredient propylene glycol is commonly found in brake and hydraulic fluids anti-freeze formulations and solvents. Its health effects include irritation to the skin damage to the intestines and depression of the central nervous system especially in children. Another ingredient benzoic acid which is a highly controversial food preservative can trigger asthma irritation to the skin and eyes and stomach problems. Another ingredient hydrochloric acid is used in hair bleaches and as a solvent. Inhaling its fumes can cause choking and inflammation of the respiratory tract. 
It is interesting that the hazard profiles and known side effects of those ingredients correspond almost exactly with the symptoms residents have been reporting—stomach and respiratory problems asthma breathing difficulties headaches neurological problems and even more severe symptoms. I will read one email I received yesterday from a resident Naomi Bland explaining her health effects: “It starts with a smell and there is a metallic taste on the back of your tongue. Your throat becomes sore then the headaches begin. Your ears begin to ache and so does your body. You haven’t got any energy and all you want to do is go to sleep. This is not only myself; this is a common experience. My grandson has been rushed to hospital twice now with temperatures of up to 104. He gets ill exactly 2 days after each spraying.” 
Doctors and authorities have attempted to dismiss and trivialise those sorts of health effects and have said they have nothing to do with the spray so they are not included in the health statistics. But several credible studies such as the recent Auckland University one confirm widespread and indisputable health effects. 
Under the public health legislation this Government has an explicit duty to promote the public health of all of its citizens and to protect them from exposure to hazards. So if the Government is going to expose thousands of Aucklanders to a hazard by blanket-spraying them with a toxic spray it must at the very least accept responsibility for fully researching monitoring and treating the health effects. It must also accept responsibility for the outrage that its bureaucrats have perpetrated on the people of west Auckland and institute a genuinely independent inquiry into the health effects of the spray rather than relying on the Ministry of Health inquiry whose major objective seems to be to placate and calm the people of west Auckland. 
I seek leave to table the paper that lists the ingredients in Foray 48B. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: Is there any objection to that course of action? There is.