Environmental Management in Tasmania: Better Off Dead? - Island Futures: Conservation and Development Across the Asia-Pacific Region - page 161

Sodium fluoroacetate was first synthesized in Belgium by Swarts in 1896
(Rammell and Fleming 1978 ). It was patented in Germany under the Nazi regime
in the 1930s as an insecticide (Connolly 2004 ) and as a rodenticide (Rammell and
Fleming 1978 ).
Monsanto Chemical Corporation was invited by the US government to manufac-
ture and supply 1080 exclusively to the government; the product was regarded as
being too toxic to be sold on the open market. Monsanto registered the name
'Compound 1080' and manufacturing began at Anniston, Alabama in 1945
(Connolly 2004 ). Monsanto sold its production facility, the production process, and
the trademark 'Compound 1080' to Tull Chemical Company in 1955. Monsanto
ceased all production of sodium fluoroacetate, and Tull Chemical has been, since
that time, the sole source of the 1080 used in Tasmania. It is exported from Tull
Chemical to New Zealand, and then on-sold to Tasmania [C. Wigley, 2004, personal
communication (owner of Tull Chemical)].
The Tasmanian Government's 1080 was originally targeted at rabbits, an intro-
duced species, but the remit was promptly broadened to the poisoning of native
marsupials including Bennetts wallabies, pademelons and possums (Guiler
et al. 1990 ).
Sodium fluoroacetate is classified as a male reproductive toxin (Orme and
Kegley 2004 ). In the WHO Acute Hazard schedule it is classified '1a, Extremely
Hazardous' (Orme and Kegley 2004 ) It is identified as a Chemical Warfare agent
that is “lethal or incapacitating when placed in drinking water” (Hickman 1999 ).
Sodium fluoroacetate is highly toxic to all species (Clarke et al. 1981 ). There are
wide variations across species, including Tasmanian species (Guiler et al. 1990 ).
The poison may be ingested, inhaled, absorbed through an open wound or mucous
membrane (e.g. the eye), or through the skin (HAZMAT 2004 ). “The lethal dose is
essentially the same by all routes of administration” (Gosselin et al. 1984 ).
Spurr and Drew ( 1999 ) identified 45 species of invertebrates feeding on 1080
baits. They included ants, beetles, earwigs, mites weevils, millipedes, centipedes
and spiders. For Tasmania, the consequences of the biociding of large areas of the
state over six decades are quite unknown. In a decision of the Resource Management
and Planning Appeals Tribunal, the potential consequences to the rare Giant Velvet
Worm ( Tasmanipatus barretti ) were deemed of sufficient concern, and sufficient
uncertainty, to halt a proposed forestry application in the north east of Tasmania
(Hall 2001 :9).
The US EPA has rejected an application for re-registration of Compound 1080,
on the grounds of: “no validated analytical method of detection with limits low
enough to determine concentrations of compound 1080 at the level of concern”
(EPA 1990 :4).
Sodium fluoroacetate is banned in Laos, Thailand, Slovenia, Belize, Cuba
(Orme and Kegley 2004 ) and China (Xie et al. 2002 ); it was banned in the USA by
President Nixon in 1972 by Executive Order 11643 (Connolly 2004 ). In Tasmania
however, economics has trumped ecology: “Poisoning is the least desirable but
most cost effective method for reducing large populations of most browsing
mammals” (Statham 2001 ).