Last year Ponsonby News asked Auckland Transport what sprays they used on roadsides and parks in Auckland City.
Last year Ponsonby News asked Auckland Transport what sprays they used on roadsides and parks in Auckland City.
Mark Hannan, Media Relations Manager, confirmed that no changes had been made to the regimen in place before amalgamation and the birth of the Super City.
Rodney and Franklin still use glyphosate (tradename Roundup) but Auckland City uses an “organic fatty acid herbicide derived from essential oils of either coconut or pine plants.” Sounds like a beauty therapy treatment, doesn’t it?
They go on to say, “this may emit a strong odour, but it is completely harmless to humans.”
Good? Well, not so good really, because glyphosate is still “used to some degree to treat specific weeds which are resistant to other vegetation control methods in Auckland City and North Shore.”
The question has arisen again last month.
Auckland Councillors’ John Watson and Wayne Walker say that Auckland Council’s increase in the use of chemical sprays is alarming and has no public mandate.
They tried to trigger a debate on an amendment which sought to reverse an earlier council decision to use more chemical sprays in Auckland’s parks and reserves. The Chair, Penny Webster, refused to allow the debate.
John Watson said this, “Over the last six months Auckland Council has dramatically increased the use of chemicals in most of its parks and reserves right across the Auckland region.”
Wayne Walker added, “Friday’s meeting was the opportunity to... stop the widespread use of glyphosate in our parks.”
“The clock has been turned back 20 years,” said Watson. “Auckland is not the world’s most liveable city, it is now New Zealand’s most chemical one.”
The Green Party waded in also. Said Steffan Browning, pesticides spokesman, “Many people would be shocked to learn that their kids’ local playground is being sprayed with potentially carcinogenic chemicals. Glyphosate has no place in building a more liveable city.”
This is a hugely backward step by Auckland Council.
Coincidently, Ponsonby News was contacted by a local woman who was exposed to one suspected spray that contained five harmful chemicals.
Amber McLennan had burning skin and was in hospital for one week. She has permanent scarring on parts of her body. Amber had to have three months off work because she was in so much pain and needed treatment. She consulted Dr Matt Tizard, well-known critic of poisonous sprays, who spent time detoxing her.
Tizard is aghast that these carcinogenic compounds are still in use in our community. Amber cautioned against chemical house spraying too, which she believes is a contributor to poisoning. It took an arduous three-month detoxification regime with Dr Tizard to get Amber McLennan’s body clear of the poisons.
This whole discussion brought back memories for me. As a student, I worked for a company spraying gorse and willows on Northland farms. My job was to drive the tanker with 245T and sometimes 24D from farm to farm and pour it into the helicopter for spraying.
These poisons spilled all over my bare hands, and resulted in a number of non-specific illnesses over the years. These poisons are cumulative and hard to eject from the body. I intend to seek a diagnosis from Dr Tizard to ascertain whether I was poisoned and whether toxins remain in my body.
There have been too many examples world wide of sickness from toxic chemicals, with glyphosate always a prime suspect.
Monsanto began producing glyphosate products in 1974. Carcinogenic Roundup is the best known and most common.
Monsanto seeds are genetically engineered to tolerate the chemical so farmers apply it to entire fields without destroying crops. However, research shows that products using glyphosate are carcinogenic, antibiotic resistant and hormone disruptive. Other studies have shown roundup has estrogenic properties and drives breast cancer proliferation.
In a small town in the United States, where soya bean is a monoculture crop, farmers spray with Roundup. This little town has the highest percentage of birth defects in babies of anywhere in the United States.
Nausea, headaches, dizziness, muscle aches and insomnia, are among symptoms which can be attributed to herbicide poisoning.
It’s about time our council dragged itself into the 21st Century and stopped poisoning citizens.
This is local body election year. Every candidate should be asked whether they are prepared to outlaw poisonous herbicides. Someone soon will take a criminal prosecution against the council if it continues to ignore the will of the people and continues to close its eyes to reality.
These poisons kill people and our council representatives are spraying them wilfully in public places.
This must stop. (JOHN ELLIOTT)