Hi! Hugh and the List, The spraying of aircraft coming to OZ and NZ is part of our quarantine system.
I am explaining, not apologizing. We have the major problem Down Under, that our life forms are mainly quite different from much of the rest of the world. Thus any new import comes without it's predators and something which is not a problem at home, just goes haywire here. Just as some out our exports take over in other people areas, vis our Melaleucas in the Everglades and some of our Acacias in South Africa. Some of our really big problems have been started by scientists bringing in Biological Controls that got away. Example: the Cane Toad was introduced to control a beetle in the sugar cane and is now a major problem across most of tropical Australia, having taken out most local species of native frog in the process. Our Customs and Quarantine is only going to be tougher, as other counties become more polluted. We see an obligation to try and keep our countries (Australia and New Zealand) as free as possible of diseases and other problems, if for no other reason to provide clean plant and animal stock for other country's breeding programs. For example, we have the only stock of disease free camels and export them to breeding programs in the lands they came from. You will have heard about our efforts to track down and discourage "Boat People", coming from other countries. Our major concern is what they bring with them as the countries through which they travel have Foot and Mouth, New Castle Disease etc, which we do not want. We burn all their possessions along with their boats etc. Within Australia, we have internal road blocks and we can't move fruit between some areas. We even have four men employed to shoot a particular bird on the boundary between two Bioregions. This is a European bird that goes to huge numbers here, but is not in one area. Are you sure it is the spray that effects you, or the air conditioning? I have lots of problems in air conditioned buildings. Regards Gil
