OVER TO YOU
A high risk matter
With the current debate over Freedom Camping, the Waiwhakaiho issue raises some serious questions. I’ve been down there three times in the past week and what I’ve seen is quite appalling and not a good look for a city and province trying to be, as the mayor and council want, the ‘lifestyle capital of NZ’.
Comments from the council give the impression that now the offer to freedom campers to stay practically anywhere has been granted, nothing further can be done until the ‘review’ in April. Has anyone in council considered the high risk, and the legal aspect of this matter?
With unlimited numbers, in vehicles many of which, apart from motorhomes, are unsuited for camping, very limited facilities where people have to queue for the toilets, hygiene and waste disposal questionable, spaces between vehicles so limited that a fire in any one of them could mean a disaster (the recommended airspace between camper vehicles is three metres), a road which has a one-way bottle neck at the pedestrian and cycle crossing where any accident or breakdown would trap all the vehicles in the area in the event of a fire, or tsunami or civil emergency.
And, where are the signs advising visitors of their obligations under our local bylaws? I see no reason why, right now, council can’t get ‘No Camping’ signs erected to limit the numbers of overnight free campers to a smaller number, in a designated area, without breaking any agreement already made to welcome these people to our city and province, keeping safety and health, and public access as a first priority.
Dennis Stewart
Oakura
Troubling toxic claims
I see a lot of people now wearing tattoos. There has been an investigation by the U.S Food and Drug Administration that new research has turned up troubling findings about toxic chemicals in tattoo ink.
It has found that the ink can contain some dodgy substances including some phthalates, metals and hydrocarbons that are carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. One chemical commonly used to make black tattoo ink called benzo (a) pyrene is known to be a potent carcinogen that causes skin cancer in animal tests.
Coloured inks often contain lead, cadmium, chromium nickel, titanium and other heavy metals that could trigger allergies or diseases. In a tattoo around the neck or shoulder area, what does the dye that is placed in the skin do to the glands? When the Celts did their tattooing here the ink came from a bi-parasitical growth on the oak tree called ‘‘Oak tree apple’’. This growth was boiled, crushed and mixed with oil to give the customary blue tattooing dye which was natural and didn’t cause any harm.
Ian Brougham
Whanganui
Whale of a swindle
In reply to Catherine Cheung’s letter re offshore seismic blasting, Jonathan Young (Daily News 11/1/18) downplayed its impact on Maui’s dolphins. Mr Young made the point that the ocean is a noisy place. Indeed it is, and made a lot noisier by blasting, which generates very loud, repeated shocks every 10 seconds, for months on end.
The peer-reviewed science is clear. This stresses whales directly, and has significant impacts across multiple levels of the food chain. To place Mr Young’s statements in context, in
1992 New Zealand signed the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Article 8 of which requires us to actively foster recovery of threatened species.
Since signing, the Maui’s dolphin population has declined by half, to the point where it is critically endangered. The relevant DOC report (Currey et al.
2012) specifically listed offshore mining as a risk to recovery. But it is not only Maui’s dolphin at risk. South Taranaki Bight hosts at least six globally endangered whale species, along with another
30 cetacean species, among the most diverse such places on Earth.
Yet we continue to treat it as a sacrificial zone for fossil fuels and seabed mining, abrogating our international responsibilities. Mr Young concludes that such concerns are actually about stopping fossil fuel exploration, a poignant protest at best, given our societal addiction. Yes, we are hooked, and have wasted precious decades, the transition deliberately hindered by premeditated lies from industry, perverse subsidies and irresponsible legislation of successive governments – surely the swindle of the millennium. Lyndon DeVantier
Okato