Source: Greenpeace
The Danish Government has officially confirmed, via its coalition agreement, that it will dramatically lower legal limits for nitrate contamination in drinking water in line with authorities’ recommendations, following outcry from Danish citizens over the country’s pork industry and its links to water contamination.
Greenpeace Aotearoa says that New Zealand should follow in Denmark’s footsteps, calling nitrate contamination a ‘hidden public health crisis’ and warning that it will worsen if action isn’t taken.
The existing nitrate limits – set at 50 mg/L NO3 , which is equivalent to the 11.3 mg/L NO3-N metric used in New Zealand – were set in the 1950s by the World Health Organisation in response to methemoglobinemia risk in infants (Blue Baby Syndrome), but do not account for long-term and chronic health risks. Denmark is set to lower its nitrate limits to 6 mg/L NO3, equivalent to 1.3 mg/L NO3-N, following the recommendations of an independent scientific review commissioned by the Danish Ministry for the Environment.
“From New Zealand to Denmark and beyond, nitrate contamination is threatening rural communities’ health,” says Greenpeace Aotearoa freshwater campaigner Will Appelbe.
“Intensive meat and dairy corporations are poisoning drinking water, and governments are not holding them accountable. Denmark’s commitment to lowering the nitrate limit is the first step towards forcing these corporations to stop their pollution.”
“Denmark has just proven that public health can take precedence over corporate agribusiness lobbies. Every child should be able to grow up drinking safe, clean water at home, without pollution from industrial livestock production making them sick.”
“Lowering the nitrate limit will make that possible for Danish communities. But New Zealanders will find little comfort in this while they are drinking water that could be making them sick.”
Nitrate contamination in drinking water has been linked to increased risks of bowel cancer and preterm birth by a growing body of international scientific research.
“New Zealand is in the middle of a nitrate crisis,” says Appelbe.
“Already, many rural communities cannot safely drink the water coming out of their kitchen tap. Towns like Darfield and Oxford in Canterbury, or Lumsden in Southland, have levels of nitrate in their drinking water that put pregnant people at an increased risk of preterm birth. This is unacceptable, and New Zealanders should be ashamed that it’s got this bad.”
“While Fonterra and other corporations are reaping record profits, their intensive dairy farms are leaking nitrate and other toxins into the soil and water systems. A handful of wealthy agribusiness executives cannot be allowed to compromise the health of our communities just to enrich themselves. That’s why New Zealand must lower the nitrate limit immediately, just like Denmark.”