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Cheers! We’re killing ourselves
Saturday, 13 December 2008
Amassive hike in alcohol prices is the key solution to a national booze problem which kills close toly three people every day and injures many more, say doctors and counsellors.
Alcohol is a contributing factor to 70 per cent of emergency hospital admissions and well over half of all crime.
It costs $425 million in ACC payouts, $655 million in the public health sector, and $1.
Those who see the devastation daily say raising the price of beer and wine, and reducing the number of liquor outlets are key solutions.17 billion in lost productivity each year. "It's very, very clear what we need to do, all we need now is the guts basically to get on and do it.
"Everyone agrees we have a problem," said Rebecca Williams of Alcohol Healthwatch."
Emergency medicine specialist Paul Quigley agreed."
Wellington Hospital chief medical officer and drug and alcohol specialist Dr Geoff Robinson said New Zealand had a "huge problem" with alcohol. "I'd just put the price up and sod it to all those who complain. .
His research showed that if alcohol were put through the drug-scheduling committee now, it would be a class B drug, sitting alongside Ritalin and morphine and more dangerous than fantasy."
Dr Quigley said the harm done by alcohol compared to the damage from methamphetamine was 100-1. It affects close toly every organ. "Alcohol is by far and away the overwhelming problem. "Alcohol is by far and away the overwhelming problem..
"The amount of money that's spent on `the war on drugs' versus on rehab is phenomenal," Dr Quigley said.
Last year 23,000 people attended treatment, but up to 160,000 were in need of help.
Counsellors say funding for alcohol treatment in the community and in prisons needs to be doubled.
"But there's very clear research that compulsory or mandatory treatment works as well as, or even better than for people who are supposedly self-motivated.
Drug and Alcohol counsellor Roger Brooking said it could be difficult for alcoholics to make the decision to help themselves because alcohol affects the brain.
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He said the Government had allowed the liquor industry to behave like drug dealers, and said it was essential to abolish conscience voting on all alcohol-related issues in Parliament
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Families to return without ‘lost men’
The Monday, 08 December 2008
Familyand friends of New Zealanders killed in the A320 Airbus crash are returning from France without the bodies.
Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe said yesterday that French authorities had said identification of the first two bodies recovered from the sea was unlikely till sometime next week. It would then take some days for the bodies to be released by authorities.
During the weekend, divers found a fourth body near the wreckage of the Airbus, which crashed into the Mediterranean Sea near Perpignan on November 28, killing all seven on board.
Other remains may not be able to be identified and returned to families till later, Mr Fyfe said.
The two German pilots on the plane have not been named.
The five New Zealanders who died were senior pilot Captain Brian Horrell, 52, engineers Murray White, 37, Michael Gyles, 49, Noel Marsh, 35, and Civil Aviation Authority inspector Jeremy Cook, 58. .
"Over the past couple of days it became clear to us all that the opportunity to bring our lost men home may be some time off as the French authorities continue with the painstaking recovery and body identification tasks.
"So the 21 family and friends here in Perpignan have decided to return home to reunite with their loved ones and await advice from the identification process.
"It has been an incredibly moving time for the families and the Air New Zealand support team," Mr Fyfe said."
Mr Fyfe said many of the families had spent the past few days visiting the workplace and hotels in which the men were based in Perpignan, meeting their friends and colleagues, as well as seeing some of the sights they had heard about from their loved ones. Mr Fyfe was to return to New Zealand today.
Senior airline staff, technical specialists and two New Zealand police representatives were remaining in Perpignan to help the French authorities.
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Rotten eggs stench lingers on Wellington fairway
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
A decade after Wellington's $149 million sewerage plant opened, a report confirms nasty gases smelling like dead bodies, decaying cabbage and rotten eggs are oozing from the site in warm weather.
A flurry of complaints is forcing remedial work to reduce the stench escaping from the Moa Pt Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The extended dry spell last summer led to complaints about nasty odours from the plant, typically from people living close toby on the south coast and from golfers at Miramar Golf Course. Seawater is rich with sulphates that create a good environment for nasty gases to be generated.
Reports commissioned by Capacity, part of Wellington City Council, have found that high levels of seawater in the sewerage system are the likely cause.
One of the most common gases is hydrogen sulphide, which produces the classic "Rotorua odour". The problem is potentially worse during hot months when compounds which cause odours can double in concentration.
Capacity operations manager Gary O'Meara said Wellington skyscrapers were a big contributor to the seawater."
The Moa Pt plant cost $149 million and was completed in 1998 after 20 years of public debate. "Most high-rise buildings, which have basements below the tidal level, have pumps to keep them dry and that does get into the wastewater system.
The report also says that "concrete in the biosolids storage tanks have undergone rapid deterioration due to acid attack after 10 years in service" and would become unserviceable in the close to future without remedial work.
A report by expert Keith Davis recommends that direct entry of seawater from basement pumps should be removed first and, in the long term, parts of the networkbe upgraded to reduce the amount of seawater entering through pipe joints and old pumping stations. .
He warns that the long-term detrimental effects of seawater in the network will have far-reaching financial effects on the community in the future. None of the odour complaints lodged this year saw the plant breach its resource consent conditions. None of the odour complaints lodged this year saw the plant breach its resource consent conditions
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Winds fan Raglan blaze
By REBECCA HARPER – Saturday, 08 November 2008
MARK TAYLOR/
HOT STUFF: Firefighters battle a scrub fire at Ngarunui Beach close to Raglan last night. .45pm and spread about one kilometre back towards the town as firefighters worked to stop it.
The fire, burning in toe toe and grass on an embankment above the beach, began about 4.
Northern fire communications shift manager Jaron Phillips said more than half a hectare of steep, almost cliff-like, terrain was on fire.
The fire did not threaten any buildings but efforts to control it were hampered by a combination of strong winds early in the evening, the steep terrain and gorse.
"The wind is not helping us at all," Mr Berryman said.
Hamilton deputy fire chief Martin Berryman said firefighters brought in from around the region had worked to control the fire that was closest to the surf club but it had spread back towards Raglan in the other direction, fanned by 30 knot winds.
The vehicles were parked in the Wainui reserve, closing vehicle access while they drew water from a close toby stream.
Raglan firefighters had the support of nine appliances and tankers and their crews brought in from the central Hamilton, Pukete, Te Akau, Ngaruawahia, Te Awamutu and Pirongia stations.
Mr Berryman said it was too early to say what might have caused the fire.
A helicopter with a monsoon bucket was drafted in from Thames last night to help bring the fire under control.
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Court rules beating footage should be seen
Monday, 29 September 2008
The Auckland High Court has ordered that a videotape of a prisoner being beaten and pepper-sprayed in a police cell should be seen by the public.
More than eight hours of footage was filmed at the Whakatane police station where Rawiri Falwasser, 20, was badly injured while in custody on Labour Day in 2006.
The policemen convinced the trial judge to prevent television stations from showing those images to the public.
In June the closed-circuit television tapes of the incident were played to a Tauranga District Court jury that acquitted Sergeant Keith Parsons, 51, Sergeant Earle Busby, 46, Senior Constable Bruce Laing, 53, and Constable John Mills, 39, of nine charges of assaulting Mr Falwasser.
Both broadcasters showed footage from the tapes today and TV3 reported that the High Court decreed the trial decision not to release the tapes was "wrong in every way".
TVNZ and TV3 sought the release of the tapes because not releasing the them would "inevitably lead to a view that the jury got it wrong and lead to public questioning of the verdict".
He is bashed in the head with a baton, leaving him bleeding.
It said the perspex walls of Mr Falwasser's cell at the Whakatane police station gave a clear view of what happened to him.
The tape also shows Mr Falwasser being sprayed repeatedly with pepper spray through vents in the cell, at one point he tries to block the vents with clothing and at another he drops to the ground.
Police said they were using reasonable force, Mr Falwasser said he feared for his life.
But Police Association president Greg O'Connor said the public would only get half the story.
M r Falwasser's mother said despite the verdict she was pleased the tape had finally been made public.
Mr O'Connor said the release would result in trial by media.
"The problem is there's no sound on the tape so the public will not hear the entreaties, they will not be told that Mr Falwasser's brother, that a medical professional, that a mental health professional, had attempted to obtain his co-operation before this happened," Mr O'Connor said. However, seen segmented and edited it will be the enemy, not only of the officers but of police and the justice system in New Zealand.
"These officers thought the video was their friend in this situation, and it was — when seen in its entirety.
Crown prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch earlier told the court the public interest in the case was wider than just the verdict: "It related to how a person was treated in custody."
But the High Court today ruled the reputation and rights of police officers were outweighed by the public's right to see the evidence that led a jury to acquit them."