Conservation Comment: Restricting glyphosate

SURVEY: David Hughes is shocked by glyphosate's availability.

IN RECENT years we have seen concerted efforts by government agencies and others to reduce our exposure to risk in our daily lives, whether in workplaces, schools, our homes, on the roads, etc.

Sometimes steps to address risks seem to go overboard and can even be overbearing. As a result, we are regularly regaled with health and safety absurdities in the media. Nevertheless, with all these measures we live in a much safer world today than even just a generation ago.

However, such caution doesn't seem to apply when it comes to the sale of pesticides used by home gardeners. Instead of the risks being highlighted, they are often downplayed. This even extends to the language used with pesticides commonly being referred to as sprays as if to confer on them an innocuousness they do not warrant.

In point of fact, they are lethal poisons that cause incalculable environmental damage. This is particularly the case for glyphosate -- the best known being Monsanto's Roundup, the most widely sold and used herbicide. There is no doubt pesticides are dangerous; in August 2014 Consumer NZ reported that "between 2006 and 2012, more than 100 children aged under 5 were hospitalised as a result of exposure to pesticides. Others are likely to have been treated in accident and emergency departments or by their GP, but numbers aren't recorded in official statistics."

In March 2015, the World Health Organisation (WHO) classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans". This triggered much debate and calls for it to be banned. Industry lobby groups, with Monsanto to the fore, tried to repudiate the findings. As Roundup is Monsanto's flagship product and leading revenue-earner, they are naturally anxious to ward off concerns that could lead to glyphosate being banned on the basis of the WHO report.

Despite this, glyphosate continues to be sold off the shelf without restriction in many countries, including New Zealand.

Recently the European Commission deliberated at length on the extension of the licence for glyphosate. After much public debate, several dissenting voices among member states, the licence was extended. This is only for 18 months -- and not the usual 15 years requested by the industry -- with the European Chemicals Agency, the regulator, being tasked with conducting a review and giving an opinion on glyphosate before any further extension can be considered.

In addition some EU member states have introduced restrictions on sales. For example, in France legislation has been moved to ban off-the-shelf sales of glyphosate and requiring sales to be made by suitably trained staff only.

Unfortunately, debate about glyphosate in New Zealand has so far been muted. One of the few public figures to speak out has been Green MP Steffan Browning, and it is disappointing that there has not been a wider take-up of these well-founded concerns.

A few days ago, I conducted a quick survey of glyphosate pesticide products on sale in local stores. With the impending arrival of spring, I found them prominently on display in Whanganui's garden centres, household hardware stores, rural suppliers and even some supermarkets, etc, ready to be picked up off the shelf. A major farm supplier had 20-litre containers of glyphosate on a pallet outside the entrance.

More surprising was to see glyphosate products stacked on shelves cheek by jowl with food cling wrap in one of the city's main supermarkets. From there it is easy to imagine traces of glyphosate getting into food. Apparently, they are breaking no law. This contrasts with their strict policy for alcohol; in the same supermarket I was recently refused beer when I was accompanied by a youthful-looking 25-year-old European visitor who had no ID. Similarly, cigarettes are no longer on display.

With the WHO declaring glyphosate as probably carcinogenic, it should only be a matter of time before it is banned or its hazard status is changed. Pending such changes -- and applying the precautionary principle -- we should be pressuring retailers to remove glyphosate products from open display and sell them only on request, and in a way that contamination with food can never occur.

� David Hughes moved to Whanganui after working for 35 years in England, Australia, New Caledonia, France and other countries. He works as a translator from French into English and is involved in a project growing heritage wheat varieties.