I’ve been following this story for decades…
Authorities accused over cancers around agrichemicals plant at Paritūtū
New research accuses authorities of a long-standing campaign to suppress evidence about the health impacts of dioxin emissions from the production of the herbicide 2,4,5-T in New Plymouth during the 1960s.
Sarah Monod de Froideville, a lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington’s Institute of Criminology, argues that at best officials were guilty of “strategic ignorance” when investigating emissions from the Ivon Watkins-Dow agrichemicals plant at Paritūtū, and at worst, of a “cover-up”.
From the 1960s through to 1987, Ivon Watkins (later Ivon Watkins-Dow) made the herbicide 2,4, 5-T at Paritūtū, which contained the toxic dioxin TCDD.
The herbicide was a key component of Agent Orange – the defoliant used by the US military in the Vietnam War – and has been linked to cancers and birth defects.
The TCDD content of 2,4,5-T was highest in the 1960s.
Steven Parkes grew up in Paritūtū and still lived nearby.
“I can remember my mother hanging her white sheets on the clothesline and all this orange foamy stuff would come across the sky and you’d hear mum go ‘oh bugger it I’ve got to wash the sheets again’.
“I can remember taking my surfboard over to Back Beach and seeing this orange liquid coming down the footpath and we used to paddle through it.
“And I used to see 44 gallon drums from Ivon Watkins on the other side of the road. I’d see the drums and look in them and they’d be bubbling and they were just sitting there.”
The 67-year-old had seen the consequences.
“Since then seeing neighbours and friends and that who’ve died at quite different times of cancers and all that, I’ve probably realised there probably is more to it, and since then only up to six months ago I’ve just had bowel cancer myself.”
Parkes said his sister had also had children with birth defects.
Sarah Monod de Froideville, and co-author – researcher and community advocate – Andrew Gibbs, examined the reports, decisions and claims made around the science of 2,4,5-T and how those were communicated.
Their peer-reviewed paper Silencing Paritūtū has been published in the international journal Crime, Law and Social Change.
Sarah Monod de Froideville said each time authorities investigated 2,4,5-T they looked in the wrong place, examined the wrong population or used the wrong figures.
“What’s gone on has been kind of like a system or process of diversion, of delay, and denial the whole way through and it’s really clear that it’s been orchestrated. That there’s decisions made at that top level to put this to bed, if you like.”
The research points to a series of opportunities to intervene that were spurned.
The earliest being when the matron at the Westown Maternity Hospital, Hyacinth Henderson, noticed a spike in birth defects in the mid 1960s.
“The response to Hyacinth at the time when she did raise it was but the figures across New Zealand don’t indicate anything, so what you’re seeing is a result of your own hyper-vigilence. So, totally discrediting her expertise in any way shape or form,” said Monod de Froideville.
Similarly, New Zealand failed to heed the warnings of the United States in 1970.
“They basically said we’ve become aware that 2,4,5-T contains TCDD and this is toxic and it’s been shown to cause birth defects in animals and we’re going to pull it from residential use and we’re also going to pull it from Vietnam,” said Monod de Froideville.
Instead 2,4,5-T continued to be used in New Zealand and manufactured at Paritūtū until 1987, officials arguing that the science was not yet proven.
Sarah Monod de Froideville said, while many of these missteps could be characterised as “strategic ignorance”, the Ministry of Health’s handling of blood serum tests carried out in the early 2000s was more sinister.
“The other times they were able to side-step it a wee bit. What shall we call it strategic ignorance?
“So, you don’t look basically, turn a blind eye, what I don’t see didn’t happen, but by the time the serum study came along that’s a cover-up because there was no putting you’re head in the sand anymore because they had the blood results and they did say what had been claimed.”
ESR undertook the blood serum study in the early 2000s.
Its interim report in 2004 showed that adults that had live in Paritūtū prior 1967 had TCDD levels 8.8 times that of those who arrived later, or levels equivalent to someone with significant exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
Monod de Froideville said the Ministry of Health’s response was to describe the study as “premature”, and likely to raise “unwarranted concern” and “potentially complex compensation issues”.
Then, despite ESR protests, the MOH redesigned the study retargeting it at length of residence rather than the period of highest exposure.
Monod de Froideville said this meant finding more participants from the 1973-1987 period whose results when combined with the 1960s group had the effect of substantially reducing the average background level of TCDD.
…Officials knew people were being positioned and the Ministry of Health did everything to cover it up and protect corporate interests.
The problem with the current crop of Qanon antivaxers and woke activists is that they see conspiracy in the wrong places.
There ARE conspiracies to hide things from the public, this terrible poisoning case highlights that, the terrible abuse of people in State care and the cover ups highlight that, the Dirty Politics journalism of Nicky Hager highlights that, but the Far Right and the Woke Left are more focused on culture war point scoring than notice the abuse of real power.
What has been done here to these people by the Ministry of Health demands investigation and accountability.
These people deserved to be protected from harm by the Ministry of Health who have instead protected the corporations interests.
This poisoning in New Plymouth during the 1960s is a disgraceful moment in NZ history that is always being ignored.
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Activists in Taranaki were posting on the Aotearoa Indymedia newswire in the early 2000s about the plight of the Paritūtū residents poisoned by IWD. It’s great to see corporate media finally catching up 😉
Thanks Martyn…I have hear this too…NZ does have toxic dump sites…some known, some not…poor devils living on them, and/or near them.
But..but..but…you’ve said that the public servants were great before the 1980s, and neoliberalism changed them into being ineffective, and we should have more of them. Like, bring back the ministry of works.
Now it seems the state’s servants failed here and at the child and youth services during the 60s, at the least.
Perhaps the old Public Service wasn’t as good as you were told?
What this article seems to miss is that every kilogram of agent orange that was used in Vietnam was manufactured in the Ivan Watkins Chemical plant in New Plymouth.
The manufacture of 245T and 24D especially the former are highly dependant on temperature control in the manufacturing process. If the temperature goes a little bit to high more dioxin is made, Agent orange was gust a crude form of 245T made under less stringent specs. In france a factory producing 245T lost control of it’s temperature in a fire and poisoned a whole valley.
Also if you spray 245T and then burn the plants sprayed before the 245T has washed off it all turns to dioxin ; so the instructions on the bottle tell you not to burn after spraying but they don’t say why or what will happen to your cattle if they mooch around in the ashes (which the love to do).
You may detect personal experience.
D J S
Worked as a gorse sprayer for a while and always wore protective clothing and respirator. A guy in our neighbourhood used to mix the 245T and water in a 44 drum with his bare arm and suffered early cancer death.
The Health Depts saw a problem with compensation but given the millions of profit that was made from the plant you would think Paritutu victims could have been paid at least the peanuts exposed american soldiers received US$3800 and medical care. A conspiracy theorist might surmise there is/was a lot of lobbying to stop any compensation paid in NZ as it would set a precedent for compensation of the Viet Namese which would be like paying war reparations.
to some extent all govts are responsable for the nutters you lie to people often enough and they belive nothing you say anymore..the nutters are the direct product of ‘spin’