Following a meeting about hydrogen cyanamide sprays held at Te Puna School earlier this week, SunLive contacted Alan Cliffe, technical manager for NuFarm NZ, distributors of hydrogen cyanamide product Hi-Cane.
Alan concedes the product is an inherently dangerous one, but adds there is plenty of information available on how to use it safely.

'There are warnings to workers, information about protective clothing, re-entry periods and good neighbour behaviour. Plus there has been a lot of work done on introducing air induction nozzles for sprayers and the addition of adjuvants to reduce spray drift.”
Alan says Zespri has also been very proactive in encouraging spray contractors to handle the product responsibly.
'And from a residual point of view the product breaks down rapidly.”
Alan says he has seen no evidence of the product being carcinogenic and adds there could be many different things that could be responsible for an increased rate of cancer.
'You'd have to ask the medical professionals about that.”
Alan rejects claims that Hi-Cane loses its efficiency after continuous use, and quotes an experiment by a grower in Te Puna who applied the product continuously for six years and continued to get good results. He also challenges claims the chemical has been banned by the European Union (EU) saying that further data was submitted by German manufacturers to the EU in March 2009.