Toxic dangers seen in nuclear testing

Press, 25 June 1983, Page 8

Toxic dangers seen in nuclear testing

NZPA-Reuter Melbourne French nuclear tests in the Pacific were likely to release big amounts of the tasteless fish toxin which caused a disease to human beings for which there was no cure, a Commonwealth Serum Laboratories poisons expert said yesterday. Dr Struan Sutherland said that the disease, ciguatera, had hit people living in a big area of the Pacific and Indian oceans after they had eaten fish. The Federal Government should use the ciguatera threat as another reason for pressuring France to abandon nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll, he said. Dr Sutherland, who is a world authority on venoms,

said the disease was one of the main reasons why there was little commercial fishing in the Pacific. The toxin was found in about 300 varieties of fish. Ciguatera causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting, and burning and freezing skin sensations. One of the bizarre effects of the disease was that people having a warm shower would feel freezing cold and scald themselves after turning on hot water only. “On the other hand, people eating ice-cream while suffering from ciguatera often complained of a burning sensation in the mouth and blow on the ice cream,” he said.

Dr Sutherland said people often suffered a recurrence of the disease after they ate fish which were not contaminated with the toxin. People who had eaten contaminated fish often said the fish was delicious, he said. Dr Sutherland was addressing a meeting of the Alfred Hospital’s department of medicine on venom research and improved patient care. He told the meeting that research had shown that even minor disturbances could release the toxin from coral reefs. The French had their own ciguatera research team in Tahiti, as well they should. Dr Sutherland said.