Editorial: Poison more serious than wood smoke

I've given up growing broccoli. It's a pest magnet. Everything eats it. The leaves are munched by crawlers before I get the chance to lop off its tasty flower.

Friends tell me spray is an easy fix - but I've always found the notion of poisoning food before serving counter-intuitive.

Last week I found an ally in Flaxmere's Nicolette Eatwell, who on Tuesday was "drenched" in agrichemical spray from a neighbouring orchard.

With the birth of her baby imminent, she was covered in the widely used fungicide Delan WG. Not only was she soaked, she could smell it on her washing and taste it in her mouth.

The story divided our newsroom. A colleague claimed the spray was diluted and innocuous.

But I suspect there's something more insidious in the wind.

Every reference for this product, which contains the active ingredient dithianon, came with the stern warning: "Harmful if inhaled. Poisonous if swallowed".

And strangely enough that's exactly what we do. First we inhale the stuff, then we swallow it when the fruit's ripe.

Hawke's Bay Regional Council, the body supposedly policing our air quality, responded to Mrs Eatwell's complaint, shut the sprayer down and had a word with Crasborn Group, the orchard's owners.

Now, I hasten to add this company is looked upon very favourably as a major player in our horticultural scene.

But it's a safe assumption that if a reputable operator was snapped breaching protocol, then there's a swag of less diligent trigger-happy cowboys doing the same or worse.

Council's pollution response team rely on public complaints. Yet given the prevalence of men in moon-suits bellowing mist into the Heretaunga Plains ether, I doubt our long-term residents now smell, taste or see anything untoward.

And let's not forget council recently brought forward the cut-off date to ban open fires in the Bay. Its website claims the problems caused by PM10 particles released by burning wood was: "the most significant regional air quality issue". Really?

I find it impossible to believe wood smoke does more harm to our collective respiratory health than agrichemicals.

My last delivery of firewood didn't come with the warning, "Harmful if inhaled, poisonous if swallowed". And neither was the wood-merchant wearing a moon-suit.

Where's my science? It's on the back of every Delan WG drum: "Harmful if inhaled. Poisonous if swallowed".

After last week's incident council said it was satisfied with how the owners handled the mishap and no further action would be taken. I'm guessing they simply forgot to impose a deterrent. Maybe next time.

This issue needs re-visiting. Surely council should be monitoring agrichemical levels as diligently as they do the burning of wood.

Council, who this morning confirmed there had been no prosecutions or infringement notices issued in the past decade - need to show some teeth.

Last week's inaction implies our citizens are merely collateral damage to an industry that currently weighs in at $464 million of the region's GDP.

That's a lot of "harm", a lot of "poison".

Speaking of innocuous, council's website has a list of recommendations for what to do if your home is the victim of spray drift. It includes "shower and change your clothing" ... "re-wash any washing that was on your clothesline" and "wash down children's play equipment".

But the most ironic recommendation of all? "Wash exposed fruit and vegetables".

Priceless.