Environment Tasmania has today expressed disappointment at the State government’s proposed regulations for managing ground and aerial spraying of pesticides as they fail to take strong action to protect drinking water and public health.
The draft regulations still allow for the aerial spraying of approximately 80 dangerous pesticides that have been prohibited in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and 24 other member countries of the European Union.
“Even low doses of these dangerous pesticides that are currently aerial and ground sprayed in Tasmania have adverse short- term and long term effects on environmental and human health”, said Dr Alison Bleaney of ET member group the Tasmanian Public and Environmental Health Network.
“When pesticides are applied, more so through aerial spraying than ground spraying, they can drift hundreds of kilometres and they make their way into our waterways and homes. The proposed regulations do not incorporate appropriate measures to ensure this does not happen”, she continued.
“Pesticides are used for multiple purposes including agricultural production, forestry, by local councils to control weeds and to groom golf and race courses. These new regulations need to address all pesticide users” said Dr Phill Pullinger Director of Environment Tasmania.
“In regards to pesticide use, State Government regulation currently allows the aerial spraying of especially highly dangerous toxic insecticides. A critical part of the ‘Statement of Principles’ agreement is the development of an integrated-catchment management framework and associated governance and regulatory reforms. We believe that reforms are needed to ensure that drinking water and homes are protected from spray drift from the aerial and ground spaying of pesticides,” he continued.
“The state government needs to demonstrate its commitment to catchment reform and the safety of the Tasmanian community by taking real action to implement strong regulations that limit and control the use of dangerous pesticides,” he concluded.
‘A list of Australia’s most dangerous pesticides’, WWF:
http://www.wwf.org.au/publications/alistofaustraliasmostdangerouspesticides/, 2011.
‘DOH bans aerial spray on farmlands’:
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=524599&publicationSubCategoryId=67, 2011.
Earlier on Tasmanian Times:
Arrogant, contemptuous, half-baked
