29/03/2015
A short episode of 1080 Poisoning in New Zealand
On 7th September 1966, Ian Arthur Buchanan died from central nervous system depression accompanied by respiratory and cardiac failure due to 1080 poisoning.
For more than fifty years, 1080 poison (sodium monofluoroacetate) has been aerially distributed in great quantities over New Zealandâs forests, bush and farmland in their governmentâs efforts to control those introduced species regarded as âpests.â Being a slow and inhumane poison capable of killing many times over through secondary poisoning, 1080 is one of the most controversial toxins in use today.
In 2002, a bright, healthy West Coast kid had an encounter with 1080 which would change his life forever. Callum Buchanan was seven years old when he travelled several kilometres in a car alongside an open bucket of 1080 poison. It was a cold winter afternoon and the fan heater was turned up to blow warm air around the vehicle.
Callum says, âWe had been up the valley to check on our horse, there had been a 1080 drop and a lot of poison had gone in the water supply. We took a bucket of 1080 in the back of the car to the Regional Council (the authority responsible for distributing the poison) in Greymouth. I got sick on the way home. My heart wouldnât stop beating real fast and I didnât feel right. Thereâs lots I donât remember.â
2010 - Callum is now fifteen years old and he still suffers from acute tachycardia with a resting heart rate of 187. He has missed much of his schooling over the past eight years due to ill health and he is continually frustrated by his inability to remember things. Callumâs immune deficiency makes him extremely susceptible to viruses and he has recently contracted Scheuermans, a debilitating disease of the spine.
Throughout this time the New Zealand medical fraternity have refused to acknowledge 1080 poisoning as the cause of Callumâs condition.
Callum says, âEvery time my heart raced my nose kept bleeding. No doctor would see us for two days, then I saw a paediatrician who wanted to help me, but then he changed his mind. I was sent to a heart specialist in Christchurch and spent time in hospital being monitored because my heart was like it was trying to get out of my chest. In the end I stopped going to the hospital with my heart racing because I got sick of being told there was nothing wrong, that it wasnât the 1080.â
Callumâs mother, Lyn, remembers this time vividly.
She says, âWhen Callum got sick no-one in authority wanted to know. In the finish I went to Crown Public Health and that got things moving but of course then it was too late to get any live proof of the poisoning. Callum saw a pediatrician who was going to do everything in his power to help him, then at Cal's next visit he just didnât want to know.
My cousin was in the car with us and she had a splitting headache afterwards. Then she started having seizures and sheâs suffered from them ever since.
Callum changed from an outgoing bubbly child to someone entirely different. He became quiet and withdrawn, he forgot so much, his memory even now is a problem to him. If he is around anyone with a virus he gets really ill, any kind of sickness really knocks him.
When he was first ill with the 1080, he was off school for six months. When he went back his teacher couldnât believe he was the same kid. Callum was always bright and could pick lessons up real easy but when he went back to school he had to relearn everything. We were lucky we had an excellent teacher.
Even now Cal still doesnât understand why everyone in the medical profession turned away from him. I feel the same way.â
In 1994, Chris Carrington was transporting a truckload of 1080 poison when a bucket split, spilling poison on his hands.
His initial symptoms were flu-like. Several hours later he lost consciousness. He awoke with chest pains and violent tremors in his arms and legs. Hospitalized twice, doctors put him through a series of tests but were unable to reach a specific diagnosis.
Chris says, âI was completely exhausted mentally and physically and would frequently collapse into semi-consciousness. My memory and coordination was shot. I couldnât eat and had wild mood swings. The scariest thing was the heart spasms and stabbing pains that felt like my chest was about to collapse under the pressure.â
At 32 years of age Chris was 110 kgs, strong, fit and healthy. After his encounter with 1080 he lost almost half his body weight, weighing just over 60kgs. He continued to suffer from a racing heart, weakness and memory lapses.
Once again, the doctors concerned failed to agree as to whether 1080 was the cause of his ill health or some other unidentifiable malady. NZâs Accident Compensation Corporation, reimbursing Chris for some loss of income, classified his symptoms as âwork-related stress.â
Author Kate Winters says, âYou have to ask yourself, with tons of poison chucked from helicopters each year, how many others are unknowingly poisoned by 1080. All too often, the causes of chronic fatigue, heart failure and respiratory conditions are merely put down to âwork-related stress.â
After feeling the effects of 1080 herself, Kate decided to write her book,âScenic Dream or Silent Nightmare?â Published in 2009, it is an intriguing novel based on New Zealandersâ real 1080 experiences and it includes Callum Buchananâs tragic story.
At the same time, public opposition to aerial poisons in New Zealand is mounting. The pertinent question is, how long can this milk and meat-producing paradise continue to blanket poison vast areas of forest, bush and farmland whilst still claiming its âClean Greenâ status?
New Zealand film makers, Clyde and Steve Graf, have spent much of their time and effort promoting another side to the official line that 1080 poison is âa necessary evilâ in a graphic documentary. Poisoning Paradise - Ecocide New Zealand won Best International Film - Environment and Ecology - at the International Film Festival Ireland in 2010, and Best Film - Environment and Ecology - at the Heart of England International Film Festival, 2010.
The documentary also won the "Conservation Advocacy Award" at the Japan Wildlife Film Festival, 2011.
As the years go by, the New Zealand government continues to poison vast tracts of bush, forest and farmland with several tonnes of pure 1080 each year. The aerial drops have a devastating effect on rural people and contaminate not only the land but rivers, streams and water supplies.
Its poisoning effects are as follows:
Disease confusion: Gastroenteritus, Heart attack, Viral Infection.
No criminal cases on record
2-10mg lethal dose.1mg is enough to cause serious poisoning.
Can be administered in food or drink or absorbed through broken skin.
Symptoms show in 30 mins to several hours. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, agitation, confusion, seizures, lethargy, coma, respiratory arrest, cardiac arrhythmias.
The saltâs metabolite, fluorocitrate, blocks normal enzyme mechanisms in the body, acting mainly on the heart and central nervous system. (ref. Criminal Poisoning: Investigational Guide for Law Enforcement, Toxicologists, Forensic Scientists, and Attorneys by John H. Trestrail.)
