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Letter to the editor – New Zealand Herald

1 October 2009

Editor

New Zealand Herald

AUCKLAND

Dear Editor

I was very surprised to see the New Zealand Herald run a story last Sunday (September 27) about marine life from the Hauraki Golf testing positive for poisons used for pest control. It would have required very little research to discover that the EAV machine used to carry out these tests has absolutely no scientific credibility.

The device is often used by holistic health centres. It is said to work by measuring disturbances in the body's flow of electro-magnetic energy along acupuncture meridians and relies on a theoretical ability of electrical fields to pass through glass, which is known to simply not occur. The device was investigated in New Zealand during the 2,4,5-T debate of the 1980s and was subsequently thoroughly discredited. Not only have attempts to have the machine registered as a medical device in the USA consistently failed, but the United States Food and Drug Administration has banned the import of them.

The Department of Conservation has carried out testing on marine life from the Hauraki Gulf and the analytical work has very clearly demonstrated to extremely low levels that there was no brodifacoum and 1080 present in these animals.

John Reeve

Principal Adviser (Toxicology)

New Zealand Food Safety Authority