DOC’S BIG FIGHTNEWS
‘‘I lost my wife through suicide and she bought a bottle of paraquat for $8.50 only, without being asked anything,’’ Neil Sharma told the Fiji Sun in 2018.
While being a doctor for four decades taught him about being sympathetic and compassionate, he said: ‘‘I never understood what empathy meant until I lost my wife’’.
Pressure from the Sharmas culminated in Fiji’s Ministry of Agriculture announcing in
October that paraquat would be banned.
‘‘It’s just about getting your voice heard and not just dealing with the grief on your own,’’ Nashika said.
‘‘So this is what I did.’’
She hopes her mum would be proud of her.
After eight years of studying, Sharma, who recently graduated from Otago, is taking a break before returning to Fiji to ‘‘serve the people of my country’’.
Paraquat has been used in New Zealand since the 1960s, mostly on clover seed and lucerne crops, but also on a wide range of foods for humans: brassicas, green beans, kumara, lettuce, onions, potatoes, spinach, strawberries, and sweetcorn.
A reassessment of paraquat by the EPA decision-making committee resulted in greater controls on approved paraquat herbicides, including restricting
‘I would never like anyone to lose their loved ones the way I have.’ NASHIKA SHARMA
to horticultural and agricultural use only, on the rate it can be applied, and restrictions to spray droplet size.
Next December, some brands of paraquat would no longer be sold, including Uniquat 250, Parable 250, Gramoxone Inteon and Preeglone Inteon.
Sharma said it was imperative to reduce access to the means of suicide, but any policy must be supported by evidence-based research.