Category: Environment

Brodifacoum Pesticide Killing Birds In New Zealand

Toxic Chemicals:

New Zealand Parklands Being Poisoned

This article was first published in 2010.  I removed it to another website, but decided to republished it on this website, since I have been writing lately about the effects of poison drops in the Kaikorai Valley area, Dunedin.  I know the local council have supported the use of 1080 drops in the past few months, and have suspected that sudden faintness, bone pains, general debilitation and sick pets is the result of these 1080 drops.  I do not know whether the council here is using brodifacoum, but this is another deadly poison, and, like 1080, gets into our water and our food eventually.

Our ‘clean, green’ image, promoted by Tourism New Zealand, and one which many Kiwis fondly relate to, is a fallacy.

New Zealand has a history of rampant chemical abuse which goes back to the days of DDT, which is still in our soils.  Then followed the herbicides 2,4D,  and 245T, which was used here long after it was banned in the rest of the educated world.

Sadly, not much has changed: Here we are in the 21st century, with the new super Auckland City Council in charge of us up here at Orewa, in the Whangaparoa, ex-Rodney Council region. This new council of Auckland City has approved a massive drop of Brodifacoum – 30 tonnes of the stuff, to be exact – to be aerially dropped over the region of the Shakespear Sanctuary.

This is not really a surprise either, considering the compliance of the Auckland City Council over the aerial poisoning of Auckland, which took place around 2002-2005.   This poisoning, done to get rid of the elusive apple moth, we were told, was, I believe, a crime against humanity.  They carried on with their campaign, spraying a deluge of apple moth spray over much of Auckland, until finally, Victoria University in Wellington proved that the spray WAS damaging the health of Aucklanders.  This was the moment when they were forced to stop their campaign.

Why couldn’t our own university in Auckland tackle the problem?  Well, the answer is that it was a politically sensitive issue:  The Auckland newspaper, “The New Zealand Herald”, was actually supporting the spraying programme by refusing to publish our on-going objections to the spray.  The same newspaper blatantly ran full page advertisements to support the campaign, driven by MAF, as if the apple moth poison, and these seriously ‘concerned’ people,  were seriously going to make our lives better.

The University of Auckland did nothing to come to our aid, when all the time, they had the records of student health over the period, which would have indicated the increased health problems suffered by students subjected to this poison.

Well, the Brodifacoum drop on Shakespear Park will hopefully not be on the scale of the apple moth poisoning, but it surely is a danger to all life, all the same.  And it is a shame that people on the Whangaparoa Peninsula have not banded together, to make as loud a noise a possible,  to try to stop the poisoning.

It seems most people on the whangaparaoa Peninsula are not even aware of the proposed Brodifacoum drop, or, if they are, they have been seduced into believing that it will not harm them.  Either that, or they just don’t care.

I have seen only one letter in our local paper, “The Rodney Times”, which objected to the Brodifacoum drop.  I made a response to this letter, to endorse the writer’s objections to the use of Brodifacoum, but my letter has not been published.

Merrilyn’s new book is available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.ca/Cancer-And-Good-Health-Notebook-ebook/dp/B01DHMH6DG

Poison Free New Zealand: I find it interesting that most of the submissions against the spray, which were presented at a council meeting in December, 2010,  come from many different places over New Zealand.   I think the organization Poison Free New Zealand, and its co-ordinator Paul Cohen,  are conjointly  responsible for these far-reaching submissions.

The New Zealand Deer-Stalker ‘s Association has also spoken out strongly against the use of the poison Brodifacoum.

One submission against the Brodifacoum drop even comes from a Kiwi who is living in France. However, there is a  single voice which speaks out against the spray, which comes from the Whangaparoa Peninsula itself.

The major concerns of the people who oppose the aerial Brodifacoum drop are that:

Brodifacoum poses a major health risk to people, animals, birds and fish in the vicinity of the drop.

Brodifacoum poison is not selective, and will kill all creatures which ingest it.

Brodifacoum also poses a threat to the wider environment, as Brodifacoum, like DDT, gets into the food chain. It does not break down easily.

Brodifacoum is a rodenticide which is a common ingredient in rat and mice poisons.

Brodifacoum causes internal haemorrhages, and these haemorrhages cause death because of resultant heart failure, or respiratory failure. These outcomes are well documented. (Kirkwood et al 1994)

One submission states that the American Bird Conservancy have cited several studies which indicate that secondary poisonings are common. A secondary poisoning is when poisoning occurs from eating flesh of an animal already contaminated with a poison, such as Brodifacoum.

The American Bird Conservancy believes that the poison Brodifacoum could be dispersed by insects which are not affected by Brodifacoum, but which harbour the pesticide within and outside their bodies. Thus insects could be carriers of the poisoned bait.

In the New Zealand Herald today and yesterday, we have been given beautiful posters of the birds of the Hauraki Gulf. This can’t be concidence, methinks. The Brodifacoum drop is about to begin:

The promotions of council so far have failed to tell us about the poisoning due to happen at Shakespear Park. Their intentions to drop 30 tonnes of Brodifacoum is being played down, and instead of warnings about the imminent poisoning, we get given these lovely posters.

One advertisement I read on a local bus just over a week ago asked for donations to protect our Shakspear Park and its birds……It gave the impression that the Auckland City Council were doing everything to look after our precious park. No mention on this ad that they are about to poison the area with rodenticide which will harm the very birds that they say they are trying to protect.

Presumably, donations received to the Auckland City Council will actually be paying for this dreadful carnage.

One writer has said that Brodifacoum has been detected in a range of game animals further up the food chain, for example, in pigs and deer, and goats, which will make the eating of wild animals unsafe.  This is one reason that the New Zealand Deer Stalker’s Association have objected to the Brodifacoum drop.

But Brodifacoum has also been found to affect bird life. The New Zealand native avian species affected is large: The list includes weka, moreportk, black billed gull, saddleback,and New Zealand robin. Imported species such as chaffinch, mynah, magpie and blackbird are also vulnerable. (Eason et al 2001)

After the Rangitoto drop of Brodifacoum, thousands of pilchards died, all in the same time frame. Our authorities have declared that there is no relationship to the poison used on Rangitoto, as they said they did not find significant amounts of Brodifacoum in the fish.

However,  just because scientist cannot find traces of the poison, this is no proof that the fish have not suffered a toxic reaction:  It is now an established fact that some species will have adverse reactions to some poisons from exposure to miniscule amounts which cannot even be detected: This has been shown with bees, in studies which have determined the cause of bee colony collapse disorder as being exposure to miniscule amounts of nicotinoid substances which did not even show up under scientific investigation.

The reality is that all birds, all animals in the area will be affected in the long term And so will people.

People who live in the area are likely to suffer sore, burning eyes, and skin rashes in some cases. But, since Brodifacoum gets into the food chain, the long-term and wide scope of its effect cannot be underestimated. Its effects will be far reaching.

The US EPA Rodenticide Mitigation Decision of May 2008 clearly classifies Brodifacoum as a ‘PERSISTENT ORGANIC COMPOUND’ (POC).

The effect of using Persistent Organic Compounds, according to this American report,  is that they “bio-accumulate along terrestrial food chains”.  It states that “repeated use of POC’s, including second generation anticoagulants, is unwise and discouraged”.

The effects of Brodifacoum have been equated to the effects of DDT,another POC which has a damaging effect on the health, and  a long-lasting effect in the environment and the food chain.

(see US EPA Rodenticide Mitigation Decision, May, 2008)

Shop-Bought Comfrey Is Ruined Medicinally, And Is Inedible

Natural Remedy Gone Wrong

The old, traditional comfrey with a broad leaf was a great healer, and it was edible.  Recently, I have tried eating a shop-bought, genetically modified comfrey, which I now have in my garden, adding a small leaf of it to a mound of silver-beet, just as I used to do in the old days.  It gave me a mild stomach-ache for several days.

This new comfrey is dry, compared to the old, healing comfrey, which dripped with silica-rich mucilage when you broke off a stem.  Modern comfrey has almost no silica-containing mucilage.

Shop-bought comfrey is recommended by plant shops as a companion plant to fruit trees, especially apple trees, and for this purpose, modern comfrey will still be useful, since the roots help break up clay soils, and bring up nutrients for the apple roots to feed on.  Shop-bought comfrey is still not as good for this purpose as the tradional comfrey, though, because of the devitalized nature of this modern comfrey.

In the 1990’s, traditional, healing comfrey was banned in New Zealand and all over the western world where the reign of the big agri-chemical companies over agriculture was taking off.  These giants began to get governments on board with this comfrey ban, and also their campaign for promoting Round-Up, which contains glyphosate, a probable cancer-causer, according to WHO. Councils all over the world have been encouraged to erradicate comfrey, and use this toxic herbicide, which, conveniently for Monsanto, works alongside their genetically modified plants and seeds without destroying them.

I heard on Radio NZ National news two weeks ago that the amount of glyphosate found in our foods has increased 500 times since 1994, which was when Monsanto’s RoundUp-Ready seeds were introduced into agriculture.

The reason comfrey was banned, our health authorities said, was that comfrey had caused cancer in pigs, due to the high allantoin content, a cell-proliferant.  I wonder – did the researchers feed only comfrey to pigs over several months in order to make them sick?  Or did they invent this pig cancer as a reason to rid the world of one of its most powerful healing remedies?

This allantoin, which has been removed in genetically modified comfrey, is the magic ingredient in traditional comfrey which made comfrey an excellent remedy for burns, abrasions, bruises, intestinal irritations, cancer, arthritis, asthma, or just about any complaint you could think of.

Traditional comfrey is also very high in silica, which is another great healing agent.

But modern, shop-bought comfrey was genetically modified to deliberately remove the healing allantoin, and also the high silica content, a  project which I am sure the pharmaceutical companies would have supported.  Nowadays, medicinal comfrey can only be bought through medical-pharmaceutical channels.

Modern, genetically modified comfrey is marketed as an improved species because it does not self-seed and spread. which the old comfrey was inclined to do. although, really, it never was a problem in my gardens.

Soil and Health did an article on this subject of this genetically modified comfrey in the early 2000’s, when suddenly we found that comfrey was available once more in the plant shops.  They found that the allantoin had been removed, and that the silica content had been greatly reduced.

Banning comfrey was a very clever move, in order to gain the market for a comfrey which people were duped into believing was still a healing plant, and one which now would not spread.  But modern comfrey has sadly been ruined as far as any medicinal use goes.

Banning comfrey for a few years, and getting government agencies to destroy any comfrey growing in wild places, and forbidding people to have it in their gardens, meant that the old, traditional,  healing comfrey died out, leaving the market path open for whatever clever and unscrupulous agriculture corporation was responsible, to introduce their ‘better’ variety of comfrey. and make us pay for it.

I also suspect, and I really hope I am wrong, that the genetically modified comfrey has been bred to cross-pollinate with natural, traditional comfrey and dominate it, so that the new plant will be the genetically modified variety.  I was sure I had traditional comfrey in my garden, but now all the plants look the same.  They are a genetically modified variety.

I would advise not to eat comfrey any more, unless you are sure you have the tradional, broad-leafed, healing comfrey.  I am sure that the agri-companies have stepped up an ingredient in genetically modified comfrey to make it inedible.

And as far as using shop-bought comfrey as a healing herb, I think you might just as well use grass.  Although the agri-chemical companies have been tampering with this also for many years.

Is 1080 Responsible For Sick Cat, Dead Birds, Kaikorai Valley Dunedin

Environment And Health At Risk

1080 is, I am sure, threatening our health, the health of animals, and also the very birds it is meant to be protecting.  It is getting into our waterways, which will kill fish and the life which fish are dependent on for food.  This contaminated drinking water will be a danger to our own health too.  As well as 1080, we have toxic herbicides, such as glyphosate in RoundUp, being sprayed vociferously about the country roads and city parks and reserves.  These poisons also end up in the waterways and affect our health.

Today is Sunday, 29th October, 2017.  I live nearby the Kaikorai Valley Reserve, in Dunedin.  My house is about 15 metres from the reserve. Yesterday, I saw a dead duck lying in a drain by the roadway which runs alongside the Kaikorai Reserve.  The day before that, on Friday, I saw a dead seagull lying on the grass in the park adjacent to the Kaikorai Valley Reserve.  I wonder if 1080 is the cause of these birds dying, and the cause of sudden debilitation in health recently.

It is interesting to me that the Kaikorai Reserve has been closed off to the public for quite a few weeks now.  No sign was up, but some orange netting has been blocking the entranceway.  I also find it interesting that during this time, a neighbour of mine who lives even closer to the reserve than me, had an emergency visit to hospital.  He said he felt ill and had a very flushed face.  But no heart pain.  The hospital told him he was having a heart attack, and put a stent into his heart while he was there.  Perhaps he did have a weak heart, but his condition would have undoubtedly been made worse by what I suspect was 1080 next door.

Earlier this year, sometime in January, I came across a kereru – native wood pigeon – which had died on the footpath, only 30 yards or so up from the entrance to the Kaikorai walkway. It was still fresh, and a wild cat was eating out the flesh of the belly. It is possible that the feral cat had killed the pigeon as it sat above on the overhanging branch of a tree, but it is also possible that this bird had been poisoned by 1080 before the cat got to it.

About three years ago, in Te Aroha, I walked with a friend a good way up Te Aroha mountain, which is in the Waikato. A notice was at the bottom of the hill, announcing that 1080 had been dropped, and this advised that one should not take a dog into the area.  We got half way up the mountain in complete silence.  Not one bird to be seen, and not one bird sound.  We were about an hour or two doing the walk, and no birds were to be seen the whole time.

My neighbour tells me that the council have been dropping a lot of 1080 around Dunedin’s parks and reserves.  All I can find about recent 1080 drops around Dunedin is this article:

Silverstream Pest Control – Dunedin City Council

www.dunedin.govt.nz › Facilities › Walking tracks

Aug 17, 2017 – The Dunedin City Council has agreed to a request from OSPRI to undertake a pest control operation using 1080 on council land in the …

On the 10th October, 2017, which I remember well, because it was my grandson’s birthday, we all felt ill at my family’s house.  They live at Sawyer’s Bay, which has a good-size reserve and water-catchment area at the top of the hill.  I suspect that the cause of their sickness was because the 1080 pesticide was dropped here too.

On the previous Saturday, 7th October, 2017, I had felt so ill I was having doubts about going to the birthday party, thinking I might have to have a visit to hospital for life support. That day my neighbour’s cat, a very healthy, young, gregarious male, vomitted up his food at my house.  He did the same thing on the following day, and again, vomitted up his food on the third day in a row.  He has never ever been ill during the time I have been here – 1 1/2 years.  He was ill at the very same time, on the very same days when I felt sudden nausea and thought I would collapse because of some unknown toxic poisoning.  My daughter and my grandson were also feeling very ill at the same time.

Earlier in the year, on New Year’s Eve, I had a similar experience of weakness which was combined with memory loss.  I had seen workers spraying herbicide along the motorway as I travelled on the bus to Mosgiel and back.  On that occasion, my neighbour called the ambulance to take me to hospital.  Many tests were done, and they declared that nothing was wrong with me physically.  A brain scan was done also, and that showed nothing wrong other than the slight deterioration which comes with age. After this sudden episode of debilitation,  I discovered that all the country roads in the surrounding district had been sprayed with toxic herbicide.  I assumed it was RoundUp, which the World Health Organization now suspect as a major cause of cancer, but I think the council’s contractors have changed the type of spray being used.  It is no better for the health, though, than the more common RoundUp.

1080 is yet another poison which is being used widely in our environment, to the detriment of health of all living creatures.  Many of my friends and school-mates have died in recent years, mostly of cancer, before reaching 65. Life expectancy is lessening in New Zealand for even well-off people, mainly because of the poisons in our air, food and water.

Breast Swelling Linked To Glyphosate Helped By Mustard Poultice

Natural Remedy

Caution:  This remedy, which uses food-grade ‘Hot English’ mustard, may not work for some people and in fact may cause blistering.  Ask your doctor or health practitioner before trying it.

I have found this remedy to be hugely effective in reducing pain and swelling in the breast, which I think has recurred because of glyphosate overload in my system.  Many years ago, after being sprayed with 2,4,5,T,  I had a lump in the same spot as that which has been bothering me again recently.  I got rid of the problem 35 or so years ago by following the Gerson therapy which uses castor oil, enemas and copious quantities of raw foods and juices.

This time, to reduce swelling and pain, I took between 6000-10,000mg of Vitamin C over a few days as well as Homeopathic Phytolacca, which is a marvellous remedy made from the common ‘Pokeroot’.  I will continue to take Phytolacca for the next three months.

But the thing I found brought immediate relief from the pain was a poultice made from ‘Pams’ ‘Hot English Mustard’ paste.  This has a combination of mustard flour, turmeric, cardamon, white pepper, sugar, vinegar, salt, worcester sauce, water and a stabilizer, 415.

I spread around a tablespoon of the paste over a small piece of pure cotton cloth.  I used a liberal amount of paste.  Then I placed the cotton with the mustard paste on it directly over the sore spot on the breast.  This was held in place by putting a bra over the top.

The poultice was left on for around three hours the first day.  This produced a redness on the outside of the breast.  But the relief from pain was incredible. I washed off any residue of mustard on the skin with cold water and applied Hypercal lotion to the skin.  This has a cooling effect.

Next day, I again used the poultice, rinsing off the old mustard and applying plenty of fresh mustard paste to the damp cotton cloth.  This time, I left it on for a longer perioed – around five hours.  It had dried a little by the time I took it off, so it peeled off a little like a plaster, seemingly taking a lot of the pain and swelling away with it.  There was not so much redness on the skin the second time.  Again, I bathed the skin with cool water.

This treatment was followed for one more day, then I gave it a rest for a day or two.  However, I will resume the poultices for a few consecutive days each week, and continue with the poultice treatment, the Vitamin C in maintenance doses, and the homeopathic Phytolacca for as long as it takes to completely cure the problem.  I expect that this will take around three months or so.

As well as the above treatments, I have eliminated even organic dairy products from my diet, with the exception of butter, cut out all yeast foods such as bread, and am limiting grains.  More sprouted grains, raw and cooked apples, sardines, carrots and greens for me.

I am also aiming at buying 90% organic foods from now on.  I am sure this breast lump has recurred because of glyphosate (and other chemicals too) which seems to be increasing in all unorganic fruits, vegetables, and grains too.

The ‘RoundUp Ready’, genetically engineered Monsanto crops are causing major havoc with our health, in my experience.  The trouble is that these GE plants, of which we now have wheat, corn, and God knows what else, are designed to withstand any amount of spraying with toxic glyphosate combinations such as Monsanto’s ‘RoundUp’ – which, incidentally, is now being marketed under a new name in New Zealand.

That these GE crops are sprayed regularly with glyphosate sprays means that our food contains ever-increasing amounts of glyphosate, along with other chemicals.  Glyphosate is poisoning the soil itself, so foods grown in contaminated soil will absorb quantities of glyphosate, even without more applications of glyphosate sprays.  We are now being poisoned to a degree which cannot be fathomed.

Root vegetables, such as potatoes, are very problematic for the health, because they absorb glyphosate and other sprays put on the soil from above.  So even if you have a heritage potato, it will be poisoned if glyphosate, etc, is sprayed anywhere near it.  I bought 10kg of potatoes recently.  I cannot eat these, as they have high amounts of chemicals in them.  They made me feel ill after eating several meals which incorporated them.  Perhaps one meal of them might have been OK, but to eat up 10kg of contaminated potatoes over the next few months would have spelt disaster for my health.  So I shared them out with my neighbours who do not believe my assertion that we should be eating only organic potatoes.

I am sure that glyphosate, especially, is to blame for my intolerance to the sun these days.  I have noticed that when I get sunstroke, which is several times each summer, I have  either walked down country lanes or even city streets which have been heavily sprayed with glyphosate weedkiller,  or gardened in soil which has, at some time, had weedkiller poured around it,  or eaten unorganic foods which I have felt had unacceptable amounts of toxins in them.

 

Glyphosate RoundUp Weedkiller Has Name Change To G360

Toxic Agricultural Chemicals

Glyphosate has been proven to be harmful to people, yet Monsanto have happily sold their ‘RoundUp’ poison for decades, telling their customers that it is ‘safe’.

Last year, WHO, World Health Organization, made an announcement that glyphosate ‘probably’ causes cancer.  Many governments over the world are in the process of banning herbicides which contain glyphosate, such as we call RoundUp in New Zealand.

Last Monday, 15th May, 2017, I saw a man spraying what was obviously weedkiller around our council-owned apartments in Dunedin.  I asked him what the poison was which he was using –

‘Is it RoundUp?’, I asked.

‘No’, he said.

‘But does it contain glyphosate?’, I asked.

‘Yes’, he said.

He went on to tell me that ‘RoundUp’ has a name-change, and is now called G360.  He said ‘They have also changed the colour of the spray, so people think it is something new to RoundUp.’

I told him he should not be using the stuff, that it is very toxic, and is not harmless, as its manufacturers like to claim.  ‘You should at least be wearing protective clothing, and a mask too,’ I said.

He told me that he had asked for protective clothing, as he is unhappy about using the spray.  But his company, which is contracted by the council, has said that they do not want their workers wearing protective clothing around the town when they are spraying, because ‘people will get freaked out’ to see the masks and protective gear.

If people see that workers who are spraying do not wear any protective gear, then they will trust that the spray being used is not harmful.

How evil is that, to knowingly threaten the health of your employees by allowing them to spray toxic poison with no protection.  This is how the lie about the safety of such poisons as glyphosate, as in RoundUp, is perpetuated.

It makes no sense to be using toxic chemicals around our city and country environments. They are a hazard to people’s health, and to dogs, cats, birds and bees which may walk in, or come in contact with the sprayed areas. Naturally, manually, hoeing and pulling weeds is the best way to go.  Or using hot water if necessary.

Many people in New Zealand are without work, forced to go into fearsome dole offices, where they are often treated like the bane of society, to ask for hand-outs.  It is about time weedkillers were outlawed, for the health and safety of the community, and for people to be rightfully given back the jobs of manually maintaining gardens and roadside verges.