Fly-Killer Warning

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31006, 11 March 1966, Page 1

Fly-Killer Warning

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, March 10.

The Health Department today issued a caution about a type of fly-killer which is being sold by door-to-door salesmen in Wellington and other areas.

The department said it was “potentially hazardous” for both children and adults.

A spokesman for the Health Department gave this advice to people who had bought ♦he preparation: “Destroy it. Burn it in an incinerator or bury it deep in the garden—but don’t burn it in the household stove or fireplace.” He said the Health Department’s telephone lines had

been jammed today after a report about the dangerous nature of the product had been broadcast this morning. The first report about the product was given to the Health Department by Kilbirnie police. “Since then, we have also traced it into the Wairarapa,” said the department spokesman. MADE IN BACKYARD He said the fly-killer was made by a backyard packer in Auckland, and contained kerosene. D.D.T., benzene and hexachloride. It was in the form of a plastic sponge soaked with the fluid and packed in an unlabelled and unsealed plastic bag, which in turn was enclosed in a paper bag which had a certain amount of labelling. The idea was that the sponge should be suspended, and the hazard lay from the

material dripping on to people’s skin or foodstuffs. People affected could be “horribly sick,” he said. HEADACHES LIKELY For the most part, the effects would show up in the form of headaches, drowsiness, a general feeling of being unwell, nausea, and lack of appetite. “That’s about all you would get in the normal circumstances,” the spokesman said. “But if you got a big dose of it it would be a hospital job.”

The Health Department has not received any reports of people being affected. The spokesman said the product would almost certainly be ineffective as a flykiller and was “grossly expensive.”

Prices reported to the department varied from 8s 6d to Ils 6d.