Rubber Gloves or Green Fingers

Television (Full Length) – 1997

The production of nerve gasses for chemical warfare during World War II lead directly to the development of insecticides. The scientists discovered these chemicals — that were so good for killing humans — were also very good for killing insects. So, this lead to the development of organophosphate insecticides and organochlorines like DDT. The irony now was that we tend to forget that these chemicals are poisonous to humans.
– Author Merial Watts

That was when I approached my employer and asked him to smell my hands, and said “look, the chemical is in me, it’s coming out of me, and I’ve had enough. Find someone else to do it.”
– Sprayer Max Levett

It would be easier for New Zealand to farm organically than any other country in the world. We are an island nation, with a temperate climate. We have no immediate polluting neighbours, and we’re not overpopulated.
– Narrator Maggie Harper

There is also the issue of chemical residues in the food we eat. Comparing official health studies in New Zealand and the USA, indicates that New Zealand children consume nearly twice as much organochlorine as American children, over fives times as much organophosphate, and 13 times as much fungicide.
– Narrator Maggie Harper