Poison controls tightened after NZ infant formula threat

The New Zealand government Wednesday tightened poison controls in the wake of a threat to contaminate infant and other formula.

Environment Minister Nick Smith said extra controls had been introduced on high purity forms of 1080, a pesticide, making it the country's most tightly regulated toxic substance.

"I am satisfied that the controls for 1080 in the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act are robust, but with this criminal threat we are putting in place extra controls," Smith said in a statement.

"The current regulations have an exemption for research laboratory use, as is the case for dozens of similarly toxic substances," Smith said.

"This threat justifies putting in place additional controls that will require tighter security of high purity 1080 in laboratories, tracking of the quantity of the poison stored and used, and requiring Environmental Protection Authority certification of importers of high purity 1080 into New Zealand."

Police and food safety officials revealed on Tuesday that letters sent to the Federated Farmers industry group and the Fonterra dairy cooperative were accompanied by small packages of milk powder that subsequently tested positive for the presence of a concentrated form of 1080.

The letters threatened to contaminate infant and other formula with 1080 unless New Zealand stopped using 1080 for pest control by the end of March 2015.

"I have no information that the high purity 1080 sent with the letter containing the threat came from a research laboratory, but I want to take a precautionary approach to minimize the risk of the poison getting into criminal hands," said Smith.

Also on Wednesday, New Zealand Infant Formula Exporters Association spokesperson Christopher Claridge told Radio New Zealand that some exporters had seen significant falls in orders from the biggest export market, China, since the threat was made public.

"They are in line with what's happened during the DCD ( dicyandiamide) event and the botulism event in which case orders were reduced by upwards of 75 percent or they were completely canceled," said Claridge.

"That's pretty standard after an event of this case because distributors in China and the retail distribution network start to lose confidence in the New Zealand brand."

He expected it to take up to a year for the market to return to normal.

The 1080 threat is the third food safety or contamination alert that the dairy industry and the Ministry for Primary Industries have had to deal with in as many years.

At the beginning of 2013, residues of pasture treatment chemical DCD was found in some Fonterra milk products, and in August that year came the false botulism alarm and the global recall of whey protein concentrate.

Sodium monofluoroacetate, known as 1080, is a poison used to protect New Zealand's native flora and fauna against introduced pests such as possums and ferrets.

Its use has been controversial over the years with opponents saying it poisons native animals and contaminates the environment. Endi