New Zealand EPA reassessed highly toxic insecticides

The New Zealand EPA announced that a group of highly toxic insecticides has been extensively reassessed and some will no longer be allowed to be used for plant pest control in New Zealand.

“This reassessment of a group of organophosphate and carbamate-based insecticides (OPCs) followed questions about their negative effects on human health and the environment,” says Mrs Gardner. “People who have been using these insecticides – from farmers to the home gardener – are likely to be impacted by the changes being announced.

The EPA’s General Manager Applications and Assessment, Sarah Gardner, says that while the controlled use of some insecticides would continue to benefit New Zealand’s primary production industries, others were too damaging to people and the environment.”