1080 nonsense harmful and cruel
The uncertainty and fear created by an unidentified, serious illness is bad enough. To have some fool suggest it was a lethal pesticide without a thorough investigation or professional credentials is unforgivably stupid.
It did not take the anti-1080 brigade long to use the misfortune of a Putaruru family to push their illogical misinformation on social media.
Three members of a Putaruru family were struck down with a mysterious illness after eating wild pork. The husband of the family is a hunter and had brought the pig home the day before. Within minutes of eating their wild pork dinner, the husband, his wife and an elderly relative from India were violently ill and losing consciousness. Their condition was so serious and the onset was so rapid that they were taken to Waikato Hospital by ambulance where they remained for more than a week. Their two young children did not share the dinner and were unaffected.
With hours of their plight becoming public knowledge, the social media network was buzzing with claims that the family had been poisoned with 1080 which the wild pig must have eaten before being killed by the hunter.
Such illogical and ill-informed nonsense is typical of some of those who oppose the use of 1080 as a pesticide. It was also cruel as the family had no knowledge of what had befallen them, and the last thing they needed was the added fear that they could have taken lethal dose of 1080.
The uncertainty and fear created by an unidentified, serious illness is bad enough. To have some fool suggest it was a lethal pesticide without a thorough investigation, knowledge of the incident or professional credentials is unforgivably stupid.
However, such is the mindless and illinformed opposition to 1080 that, in 2014, someone sent an anonymous letter to the CEO of Fonterra threatening to use 1080 to poison milk powder used in infant formula. To prove the point he sent a sample of 1080-laced milk powder with the letter.
Another common myth is that aerial 1080 operations will poison rivers but there is sound science to show that a 60kg person would need to drink 60,000 litres of water containing 2 ppb (parts per billion) of 1080, in one sitting, to absorb a fatal dose. Even allowing a significant safety factor of 1000 would still require a person to drink at least 60 litres of water containing 2 ppb of 1080 before being considered at risk.
The average person drinks about two litres of water a day.
These facts are readily available and just as readily ignored.
Secondary poisoning with 1080 does occur in the wild, usually when a predator eats a dead carcass including the digestive tract. Dogs have a very low tolerance of 1080 but stoats and ferrets have also died after eating poisoned possums.
A government study revealed that when animals such as sheep, goats and rabbits were given sub-lethal amounts of
1080, the levels in their blood peaked 2.5 hours after dosing, and were at negligible levels four days later.
The study also says a 60kg person would need would need to eat about 13
6-gram baits or seven 12g baits, containing 0.15% 1080, to receive a fatal dose.
If the pig had eaten 1080 bait before being killed, the family would have had to eat a huge amount to become so ill so quickly. Any animal which had eaten sufficient of the bait to have enough still in the digestive tract would have been dead. One idiot even suggested the hunter had probably found a dead pig, which had been killed by 1080, and taken the carcass home.
As it turned out the family has been treated for botulism, a rare but very serious form of food poisoning. The most common sources of botulism are poorly preserved foods, such as bottled fruit and vegetables or shellfish taken from contaminated water. Cooking does not destroy the toxin if it is present. Cases are rare in New Zealand and the last known case was in 2015.
As yet no one is sure of the exact source of the botulism but it is unlikely to be fresh, properly dressed meat. While pork seems to have been the main item on the dinner table, there may well have been other foods present. It will take several weeks for samples to be tested before the exact cause is known. It may never be known with any certainty.
There are genuine concerns and fears in the community about the use of 1080 and there are several groups who want the pesticide banned. Their cause is not helped by the spread of misinformation and ignorant fearmongering on social media.