soontobeinaus

For anyone else reading this - after more digging I found some more detailed information on changes since the 90s. It seems as though many toxic pesticides were banned in the 90s. I still can't find any information or recent air or water tests. Many of the Persistent Organic Pesticides (including Dieldrin which was used in banana plantations) were banned 20-30 years ago: Dieldrin has a halflife of 5 years, meaning Dieldrin concentrations in the soil should be < 2.0% of the levels from 1988. Aerial application is still allowed (so air drift is an potential issue), and many chemicals are still allowed. The tests that showed high levels of pesticides in children measured organochlorines (the ones that were banned in the 90s). Some organochlorines (like Dieldrin) can still be found in sewer sludge (at acceptable levels) as of 2010. Coffs Harbour does water testing, but not for pesticides. There were air born pesticide tests done in 1995 over the 5 month peak spraying season. They found 6 airborne pesticides: chlorpyrifos (moderate toxicity (headaches), not carcinogen) detected in 14% of samples - with correlation to domestic use Heptachlor (very toxic, but banned in 1997) detected in 7% of samples Others : only rarely In the area, only propiconazole (low toxicity, potential carcinogen) is allowed to be sprayed by air, but none was found in air samples. From the report: "community exposures to pesticides in ambient air may largely relate to their nonagricultural use." A 2006 report on pesticides on plantations in australia found: Use of chemical pesticides in plantations was small, well managed, actively regulated and environmentally responsible. Herbicides, including adjuvants, constitute 99 per cent of plantation pesticide spending and insecticides 1 per cent. Most chemicals used in plantations are also used to produce crops, fruit and vegetables. Most pesticides are used at less than half the allowable maximum application rate.

I was taking a look at the Coffs Council mapping system (which is great : http://chccmaps.coffsharbour.nsw.gov.au:8080/Html5Viewer/?viewer=html5 ) and I came across the concept of 'Banana Contaminated Land'. There seems to be a lot of such land around Coffs (especially in new developments). This has led me down a rabbit hole of pesticides... There are various stories from the 80s and 90s about high pesticide levels in water tanks (http://pesticides.australianmap.net/1986-1987-coffs-harbour-tank-water-pesticides-dieldrin-aldrin-propiconazole/), in children (http://www.asehaqld.org.au/index.php/childrens-health-issues/body-burden-and-chemical-injury-in-children/97-body-burden-of-pops-in-children), in the air (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7578535), causing birth defects (https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19851016&id=cDZWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KugDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2371,10270&hl=en) etc. I can't find any recent data on any sort of regulation changes, or air or water testing (other than this http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/pesticides/pesticides.htm which seems to just say that to use pesticides you must record what you are using, and have training, but does not clearly mention any pesticides that have been banned since the 90s) Has anyone heard anything about this or know where I can find more recent information?