Safety audit shows little dioxin risk to Dow AgroSciences workers

Thursday 10 March 2005

More than 40 people who worked at the former Ivon Watkins Dow plant in Paritutu have contacted the Department of Labour's occupational safety and health service with concerns about past exposure to dioxins.

OSH national operations manager Mike Cosman said the service would continue to offer information and advice to any former IWD workers who made contact with the Taranaki OSH office, and refer them to ACC or a local health service provider as appropriate.

Mr Cosman said efforts would be made to contact as many former workers as possible. 'While we believe that most people in the New Plymouth area are aware of who to contact, we want to ensure that all former workers, wherever they are in New Zealand, know who they can get in touch with.

'We are aware of at least one research project to study the health of IWD workers, and the Department of Labour will be providing information to former workers via the researchers. We want to ensure that workers know to visit their GP or get in touch with OSH if they have any concerns about possible exposure to dioxins in the workplace.'
Mr Cosman said the Department of Labour had recently completed an audit of health and safety issues around current operations at the Dow AgroSciences plant, which has shown negligible risk of dioxin exposure to current workers.