Recent information from Animal Control Products Ltd is that DoC buy between 30% and 50% of their 1080 product every year, that OSPRI and regional councils account for another 40%, and (presumably) ZIP and Predator Free NZ account for the rest…. between 10% and 30%.
As DoC have produced maps showing they intend to be covering 1.124 million ha with aerial 1080 this year, at a rate of 1.5 to 2 kgs per ha, and even if they account for a 50% buy-up of the poison, we can safely assume a total of about 4,000 tonnes of 1080 poison baits will be spread on our land this year.
That is 6,000kgs of pure 1080 poison (at the standard 0.15% pure poison per bait rate).. So at an LD50 of 0.5mg per kg bodyweight that means 35mg can kill a 70kg human being. That works out to be theoretically enough 1080 dropped on NZ this year to poison 171,428,571 x 70kg people, with half of them, 85,714,285, having a lethal dose!
LD50 : [ Based on fatal or near-fatal cases of human poisonings, the dangerous dose for humans is 0.5-2.0 mg/kg BW (Negherbon 1959)]
(LD50 stands for Lethal Dose 50 – killing with poison is not an exact science so an LD50 is used, which means that one can assume 50% of the people poisoned will die. It doesn’t mean the other 50% get off scot-free!)
Photo credit: supplied by Carol Sawyer
If you are new to NZ’s 1080 poisoning program here is a good article to start with …
A must watch also is Poisoning Paradise, the doco made by the GrafBoys (banned from screening on NZ TV, yet a 4x international award winner). Their website is tv-wild.com. Their doco is a very comprehensive overview with the independent science to illustrate the question marks that remain over the use of this poison. Check out also 1080science.co.nz for the independent science.
3) Orillion/ Animal Control Products Ltd, 408 Heads Road, Whanganui
On 9 April, 2019, Claire Ogilvy sent this OIA request to the state-owned factory in Whanganui that makes 1080 baits, Animal Control Products Ltd, trading as ‘Orillion’:
“Can I please get an official response to the following questions:
Where does Animal Control Products Limited currently source the Compound 1080 used in bait manufacture? Are Connell Brothers Ltd still the distributors? If not, who is?
Does Animal Control Products Limited manufacture Compound 1080 itself, or has it ever manufactured Compound 1080 itself, in New Zealand, or had it manufactured on behalf Animal Control Products Limited by any other manufacturer or entity?
How much contingency stock do you hold?”
The very prompt reply is attached.
(If only government departments were so quick to respond, but they usually make us wait to the limit, 20 working days, and then add some.)
This reply engendered further questions… (see screenshots 5 through 8 below).
To me, some of the most important information to come out of the correspondence is this. Why? Because everyone focuses on the Dept of Conservation and what these figures tell us are that DoC is only half the problem!
Orillion’s sales of 1080 baits comprise :
To DoC – 30 to 50% per annum To Ospri – 20 to 30% per annum To Regional government – Up to 10% per annum
Presumably Predator Free NZ, Zero Invasive Predators (ZIP), and maybe the Island Eradication Group account for the rest.
4) Pest Control Research Ltd, 8 Centrum Lane, Izone Business Park, Rolleston
As well as ACP Ltd/Orillion, there is a factory in Rolleston, near Christchurch, Pest Control Research Ltd/Kiwicare Corporation, that has been manufacturing 1080 baits since mid-2018, when it finally received consent to produce them. Up until that time it had only been making the non-toxic ‘prefeed’ baits.
The Dept of Conservation is now sourcing 50% of its 1080 baits for its ‘Battle For Our Birds’ programme from PCR Ltd, and the other 50% from Orillion.
PCR Ltd (Rolleston) is 49% owned by the West Coast Regional Council and 51% owned by Pest Control Investors Ltd.
Pest Control Investors Ltd has one shareholder, Kumara Trustee Ltd.
Kumara Trustee Ltd has one shareholder, Pest Control Investors Ltd.!
So the investors are well hidden and we do not (at this stage) know who they are.
The attached response from Animal Control Products Ltd (Orillion) is puzzling in one regard. The correspondent, John ?, says:
“1080 technical grade material has never been made on a commercial scale in New Zealand and Orillion has never been involved in the manufacture of the compound in New Zealand or internationally”
How, then, does this tie in with the written answers to questions from former Green Party leader Jeanette Fitzsimons by Jim Sutton, NZ Parliament, November 2002, where he appears to state pure 1080 was made in NZ – at the very least between 1998 and 2002!? (See below).
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It seems clear that, unlike Orillion, the Rolleston factory, Pest Control Research Ltd, is not sourcing its pure 1080 poison from Tull Chemical Co, Oxford, Alabama.
Not only does John ? (ACP Ltd) say today
“We are unaware as to where the source of 1080 for our competitor PCR originates from although China most likely has capability to manufacture” …
but a reliable source of my own wrote a few days ago” “Rumours suggest China. There is no way to find out. MPI know but won’t tell, despite Orillion’s source having been widely published by government agencies and others. Questions probably need to be asked.”
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Snippets:
CONNELL BROS INFORMATION
9) Connell Bros information
1) Here FYI is the Connell Brothers website. They import the pure 1080 into New Zealand from Alabama :
1) An aerial photo of the Tull Chemical Co in Oxford, Alabama2) Tull Chemical Co, Oxford, Alabama
2) We know from Mandy Ram, a Kiwi living in the USA, that Tull Chemical Co, Oxford, Alabama, (Orillion’s supplier), sources the chemicals used to manufacture its pure 1080 poison from China, and that the last shipment of chemicals they received was in January, 2019.
1) An aerial photo of the Tull Chemical Co in Oxford, Alabama
2) Tull Chemical Co, Oxford, Alabama
3) Orillion/ Animal Control Products Ltd, 408 Heads Road, Whanganui
4) Pest Control Research Ltd, 8 Centrum Lane, Izone Business Park, Rolleston
5,6,7,8) OIA correspondence with Orillion
9) Connell Bros information
10,11) Answers to written questions to NZ Parliament by former Green Party leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons, re manufacture of 1080 poison in NZ.
PS I am not attaching all the photos in this email – just the screenshots of the correspondence. “Tull 4” was sent after the first reply ( Tull One ), so they are not in order:
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