The poisonous legacy of DOW New Zealand

"Let us spray": the poisonous legacy

In 2006, New Zealand's TV3 channel ran 

"Let Us Spray" Streaming Video here

A documentary by Investigative Reporter of the Year Melanie Reid. Reid's film examined the many reported cases of birth defects in New Plymouth and around the country and discovered a doubling of birth defects coincided with the country’s maximum exposure to the 245T dioxin.

Former midwife Hyacinth Henderson, aged 87, says she saw many birth defects when she worked at New Plymouth's Westown Maternity Hospital. 

Between 1965 and 1971 {6 years} she recorded:

167 birth defects out of 5,392 babies born there. {images warning graphic} 

She told the Herald that they had abnormalities she had never seen before and she had been in obstetrics for 40 years.  

"Some of them were horrific ...

There were two anecephalics, which means there is no brain or the brain is sheared off above the eyebrows. There were a large number of bone deformities such as clubbed feet and things like that."

Thanks partly to citizen pressure, a blood study of 24 New Plymouth/Paritutu volunteers was begun by the Ministry of Health in March of 2004. 

The results, released on Sept. 9th of 2004, 

confirmed that Dow is one of the largest historical polluters in New Zealand. 

According to the study:

The dioxin levels detected in Paritutu residents are up to five-fold New Zealand's nation-wide levels, which are themselves second only to South Vietnam.

In what has been described by residents as the "second Vietnam," 

Dow now faces massive future liabilities. "The time has come for the company to deal with the demons of its past" the New Zealand Herald writes in an editorial on the issue, labeling Dow's ethical standards as "lamentable". 

Andrew Gibbs of the Paritutu Dioxin Investigation Network put things a different way: {now CEPRA Chemically Exposed Paritutu Residents Association}

"What we are dealing with is New Zealand's Chernobyl."

original source 

Let Us Spray

After viewing via internet
“Let Us Spray”
The confronting and awful reality of what has happened in New Plymouth in regards to dioxin poisoning is indelibly clear.

My name is Gary Green and on several occasions I appear in this documentary as a sufferer from dioxin poisoning caused from airborne exposure whilst working in close proximity to a herbicide manufacturing plant for 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, when we lived in New Plymouth, New Zealand.

As I watched this documentary my heart was torn and on several occasions quite tearful as I viewed the traumatic struggles and medical impacts of others affected by Dioxin exposure.

The clarity that we all have experienced; continual denial to recognition and recompense and medical assistance as sufferers of dioxin poisoning was undeniable

To give you insight of what a sufferer must endure I have chosen to point out I am personally in the process of claiming ACC the claim was lodged 19th October 2005 and received an outcome of that claim 12th July 2006 “claim for cover is declined “, we have engaged a Barrister to pursue a fair and just settlement in the high courts for our appeal against the denial of ACC. Our appeal was a 3000 page plus document addressing every point ACC. used to deny us a rightful claim. "2014" The claim is now in appeal at the High Courts of New Zealand awaiting a determination

I would ask the people of New Zealand to unit with us and become a single coherent voice which plainly shows the will of the people concerning this issue.

As part of my efforts personally to lift the awareness of what has happened in New Plymouth I set up a website to provide a single web portal for the people of New Zealand to have access to which provides all the information which has been scattered in multiple websites worldwide.

The name of our site is www.dioxinnz.com

I would truly appreciate your assistance in bringing the awareness of this site to the people of New Zealand.

We Invite You to Financially Support the Efforts : Donate Here

That entire effort of Dioxinnz.com has been possible by actual sufferers of dioxin poisoning who are on pensions giving towards costs to exist.

We would ask for the people of New Zealand to rally around us in our campaign to get recognition and a fair and just settlement; and medical treatment

Your donations will enable us to continue the campaign and keep the website dioxinnz.com online.

And will also enable us to increase intensity of bringing the current incumbent Government to a place where they accept the realities of what has happened and begin to take care of those whom have become victims of industrial misadventure.

EDITED 22/02/2014