New Zealand has been one of the world's heaviest users of pesticides, including some contaminated with dioxin, a notorious toxic chemical. In this BWB Text a leading epidemiologist uses the example of dioxin to illustrate how badly New Zealand handles problems of environmental pollutants, and why we can do better. Concern with public health has been recast by the Covid-19 pandemic. Neil Pearce's eye-opening account of our country's ongoing failures in environmental protection shows there is much more work to be done.
Author Biography
Neil Pearce is Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Since 1985, he has been engaged in a wide range of public health research activities including, co-founding the Wellington Asthma Research group at the Wellington School of Medicine and establishing the Massey University Centre for Public Health Research. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand (FRSNZ) and the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) and Past-President of the International Epidemiological Association (IEA).
