Another poisoning incident goes unpublicised

The latest list of reported poisoning incidents in Scotland, as published by SASA, reveals that yet another poisoning incident took place earlier this year and it wasn’t publicised.

The report documents the discovery of a raven, a crow, a meat bait and two rabbit baits. The incident is categorised as ‘abuse’ and the chemical involved was the acutely toxic carbamate, Bendiocarb. This discovery was made in May and the location is given as ‘Borders’. The comments section says: “This incident is the subject of an on-going police investigation”.

So where was the publicity? What if the police hadn’t found all of the baits? What if more baits had been laid out? Where was the warning to the general public of the risks involved to them, their children and their pets if they stumbled across this poison? Isn’t there a duty of care for the authorities to warn the public about toxic poisons in their area?

There’s a fascinating document called ‘Communicating with the Public about Health Risks’, produced by Health Protection Scotland in 2008 (see here). This document spells out the importance of effective communication (with the public) about hazards that pose a risk to human health and gives very detailed guidance about how to communicate information about those risks.

There’s another useful document, called ‘Management of Public Health Incidents: Guidance on the Roles and Responsibilities of NHS-led Incident Management Teams’, produced by the Scottish Government in October 2011 (see here). This document details the statutory responsibilities for managing public health incidents and it tells us that poisons are indeed classified as a public health risk under The Public Health (Scotland) Act 2008. So who is failing in their duty to inform the public about these risks?

One of these days, somebody is going to come into contact with one of these poisoned baits and they’re either going to become seriously ill or even die. What would happen if it was revealed that the police already knew about the baits in that area/location, but hadn’t made the discovery public? There would probably be an almighty cry of public and media outrage and heads would roll. And they’d deserve to roll. This recurring situation is a scandal.

When are the interests of the public, and of wildlife, going to be put above the interests of protecting the identity of these sporting estates where illegal poisoned baits have been, and continue to be, routinely found?