The argument about 1080 poison being used in pest control has gone on in New Zealand for many decades. But because the government owns the factory that manufactures 1080, it has been difficult for opponents to get the word out internationally about what really happens in New Zealand in terms of inhumane animal deaths, contamination of water and the poisoning of untargeted animals (livestock, pets and wild animals including endangered birds such as kea).
The Graf Boys have produced two good documentaries on this topic - A Shadow of Doubt and Poisoning Paradise.
The parts of the documentaries that were most fascinating to me were: the American scientists talking about their independent review of 1080 science; the Australian RSPCA spokesperson explaining in excruciating detail what happens to a dog that has been poisoned; the interview with Shirley Hudson over the killing of 242 sheep on one farm and the council's letter offering her compensation (and asking for confidentiality); the people who were told to write out invoices for stock food and fencing rather than for farm animals killed by 1080; the regular poisoning of people's water supplies; and the footage of the aerial 1080 operational manager stating that there's no issue with the workers not wearing protective clothing as they are loading the hopper underneath the helicopter where 1080 dust is swirling everywhere. If you find out it's unsafe, come back and see me, the man says.
The latest Official Information Act information showed 146 out 647 1080 poison worker's urine samples tested positive for 1080 within the last ten years. Within the last year, one 1080 factory worker is believed to have died and another was in a coma from contact with 1080 (these are still under investigation nearly a year later and media has gone quiet). In the previous year, a family was poisoned through eating a wild boar curry. The hospital's working diagnosis pointed to 1080 as the most likely cause. A toxicologist later said all the symptoms indicated 1080 poisoning, and yet no one at the hospital tested for it within the required time period that would deliver a valid result. The documentaries provide documented evidence of all of these things, which makes the videorecorded statement by a Forest and Bird spokesman that 1080 poison is as safe as a packet of salt and vinegar chips appear utterly insane, in my opinion.
But these things aren't new. There are historic recordings of people saying that you could safely drink a glass of DDT. I keep returning to the footage in this documentary of the 1080 operation where the manager says his worker's don't need masks. It's scary, especially when everything to do with 1080, including the decision about whether or not to test for it in hospital cases, is controlled by the government.
The Graf Boys have been very brave in documenting and highlighting the serious environmental issues around New Zealand's use of a toxin that most countries have either banned or seriously restricted. No other country spreads this toxin in baits across forests and water and farmland.
Perhaps that's why this documentary has now received four international awards.
