Regulator raises alarm over insecticide used on blueberries

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The federal pesticides regulator has raised fresh safety concerns for children about a chemical widely used on berries. The ABC revealed earlier this year that consumption of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries by Australians had jumped significantly.

Transcript

00:00The concerns that the regulator is voicing this week is that the amount of a particular

00:07pesticide called dimethoate has been, the amount of it on berries is too high. It's

00:13been applied in a way that means we are eating too much of it. Until very recently, the regulator

00:18was relying on consumption data from the 1990s to determine how this pesticide is allowed

00:25to be used on berries. The data is really important. That consumption data is really important

00:31because of how pesticides work. So for example, when it comes to apples, the amount of pesticide

00:40residue allowed to be left on apples is quite low because Australians eat a lot of them.

00:45If you take something like coriander, the amount that's allowed to be left on herbs like coriander

00:51is quite high because we're not all going around eating bunches of coriander. We're just

00:55using it as a garnish on our food. So the APVMA, the regulator, had assumed that Australians

01:03were eating far fewer berries than they actually were. It has now come out and said the amount

01:09of pesticide, particular pesticide dimethoate allowed to be left on blueberries, raspberries

01:15and blackberries means that it has been unsafe potentially, especially for young children aged

01:22two to six. What's changed now is that something called the withholding period has been increased.

01:28So before now, farmers were allowed to spray blueberries in particular with dimethoate,

01:34which is an insecticide, and then harvest those berries one day later, which means that the amount

01:41of pesticide on those blueberries when you buy them at the supermarket was quite high because pesticide

01:46breaks down over time. They've now said that farmers must wait at least 14 days, so two weeks,

01:54before they can harvest that fruit to give an ample amount of time for dimethoate to break down so that

02:01we're not eating as much of it if you go through an entire punnet in one sitting. And this is,

02:07the regulators now agreeing with an ABC investigation that was published in September that exposed this.

02:14A scientist called Kirsten Benckendorf had raised the alarm with the EPA and regulators earlier this

02:21year, and the regulator has now agreed that the residue limit on these berries is far too high.

02:28Because the withholding period has increased so much to 14 days, it's likely that farmers will just

02:36stop using the chemical altogether because it means that they'd have to leave the fruit on the tree

02:42for quite some time, and they just risk the fruit going bad if they wait that long. So it is likely

02:48to be more economical and easier for them to just stop using that chemical. But yes, the rules for now

02:53have increased so that farmers can no longer harvest after one day for blueberries or six days

02:58for raspberries and blackberries. They have to wait at least two weeks.

03:02the conspiracy след for移ower. They have to wait until the weather changes or we're going to work at least 12 days.

03:12So we're going to discuss this a little bit, so we're looking for the leaves and the leaves and they're all looking for us.

03:15So we're looking for the leaves.

03:16So we're looking for the leaves.

03:20We're looking for some other leaves look at the leaves but one of the leaves.

03:22And so we're looking for the leaves.

03:24So we're looking for this.

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