INSECTICIDE VAPORISERS

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28270, 7 May 1957, Page 8

INSECTICIDE VAPORISERS

Medical Officer’s Warning The use of insecticide vaporisers is being discouraged by the Health Department. Lindane vaporisers, which electrically heat a tablet of the insecticide and disseminate the insect-killing lindane vapour into the atmosphere of a room, have been sold in millions in America and have been on the New Zealand market for some time. The deputy medical officer of health in Christchurch (Dr. W. I. Paterson) said that his department had curtailed the use of the devices in food shops. The vaporisers were not to be used in food shops or eating houses when food was exposed or persons were present, he said. He would not recommend their use in private homes. A special danger was that vaporisers that he had seen did not indicate for what sized room they were suitable, nor the rate at which the poisonous vapour was emitted, he said. Another was that the condensed vapour was readily absorbed by fats and other foodstuffs. The deyice was therefore not safe foif use in butchers’ shops. Lindane is a member of a group of insecticides which includes chlordane, aldrin, dieldrin and DDT. Widespread use of the vaporisers was followed in the United States and Canada by reports of ill-effects from human exposure. Authorities consider that the difference between the air concentrations of lindane to control house-flies during a short exposure, and those which may be safely tolerated by humans over long periods is barely adequate.