Poison honey source traced (+video)
Health authorities said yesterday they had pinpointed the producer of the honey, which also struck down a Wellington mother, her three-year-old son and another relative.
He is thought to be a Whangamata man who has been running a %26quot;hobby apiary%26quot; for about five months. The man has denied his product caused the problems.
Contaminated honey from the three outlets stocking his products - Meat at the Beach Butchers, Valley Orchards and Quarry Orchards - has been recalled.
Health authorities are urging people not to eat comb honey recently bought from Coromandel.
The National Beekeepers Association is warning consumers not to buy honey harvested from hives or wild bee colonies in the area since December.
A dropoff point has been set up at the Whangamata Medical Centre to dispose of tainted honey.
Hamilton woman Judy Hall ate the honey on toast three times, each time becoming ill, before she realised it might be to blame.
Two packets of honey were bought from Meat at the Beach butcher last Tuesday.
She began vomiting after eating the toast, but thought something else made her sick. She visited the doctor but, feeling better, ate more honey on Friday and Saturday and suffered tremors and convulsions.
Wellington woman Jo Whittle, her son Daniel Fox and her sister%26#39;s partner Joseph Reynolds were admitted to hospital on Friday after eating honey from the area last week.
Mr Reynolds, visiting from London, had a seizure in his sleep and remembers nothing of it. He was discharged from Thames Hospital yesterday, shortly before the others.
Ms Whittle, of Upper Hutt, said seeing her son convulse was terrifying. %26quot;His whole body was stiff and arching. His teeth were clenched so tight it took some minutes before he could relax them. I think the scariest thing was his eyes were wide open and staring and they rolled up under the lids … then he went blue and stopped breathing.%26quot;
As little as a teaspoon of toxic honey can affect the human nervous system and it can be lethal.
National Beekeepers Association chief executive Jim Edwards said processing plants must be registered to ensure honey met health standards.
Apiarists must sign a harvest declaration form to say their hives had not been exposed to chemicals or other risks.
He hopes the incident does not affect the industry, which exported honey products worth $56 million last year.
SWEET TOXIN
* Honey becomes toxic when bees gather honeydew produced by the sap-sucking vine hopper insect, which feeds on tutu plants. The hopper can introduce the poison tutin into honey.
* Symptoms include vomiting, delirium, giddiness, stupor, coma and violent convulsions.
* If sick, contact a doctor immediately. If you throw the honey out, wrap it up well %26ndash; or bees will seek it out and reintroduce it into the food chain.
