In June this year the Australian Federal
Court found that ICI Australia had been deficient in its duty of care in
relation to the registration of the pesticide chlorfluazuron (CFZ), sold under
the trade name of Helix. Justice Wilcox found that ICI was aware that CFZ
bioaccumulated and persisted in the fat of animals.
CFZ was sprayed from the air on cotton crops in New South
Wales and Queensland the during the 1994 growing season, to reduce the incidence
of bud worm and boll worm. At the time, cattle fodder was in short supply, and
30,000 tonnes of cotton trash containing residues of CFZ was fed to cattle as a
drought supplement.
In late 1994, the NSW Department of Agriculture issued a
health warning detailing residue problems due to feeding cotton leaf pellets to
cattle. CFZ residues in cattle were as high as 27 parts per million.
In 1995 cattle farmers filed a class action suit against the
Australian government and Crop Care Australasia, ICI's affiliate company,
responsible for marketing Helix in Australia. ICI is expected to face claims of
Aus $100 million from cattle farmers who have lost export sales due to CFZ
contamination.
In court it appeared ICI had failed to undertake the full
environmental field studies recommended by specialist scientists in the UK,
despite numerous expressions of concern by chemists at ICI UK to senior officers
in Australia.
Australian Toxic Network News, No
28, Winter 1997.
[This
article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 37,
September 1997, page 7]