Ms O’CONNOR – As you be aware, minister, there’s a lot of concern amongst coastal recreational users, recreational fishers, rock lobster fishers about the decision to allow the use of florfenicol at volume in fish farm operations. Particularly, in the south of the state.
Through the public health lens, are you able to advise the committee what advice public health provided to the Tasmanian Government or the EPA on the potential risks of allowing this very high strength antibiotic into the marine environment at scale?
Mrs ARCHER – Yes, thank you. I note that the advice provided by the Director of Public Health is that florfenicol is an antibiotic used in many countries for veterinary medicine, agriculture and aquaculture, including salmon farms. When farmed salmon are treated with florfenicol in medicated feed, wild fish nearby may also eat some of this feed. There are no reports of adverse human health effects from exposure to traces of florfenicol in meat or fish. However, recreational fishers may choose to avoid exposure to antibiotic residues, the traces of florfenicol in the fish that they catch and eat. There are no public health restrictions on recreational fishing within three kilometres of a treated lease. It is precautionary advice.
Ms O’CONNOR – Are we able to hear from public health directly, what advice was provided to government about any risks associated with florfenicol widespread in the marine environment?
Mr WEBSTER – Firstly, public health is not the regulator in this case, it’s NRET and the decision to allow the use of florfenicol was in fact through the Australian Pesticides Veterinary Medicines Authority.
The application that was made to them by Abbey Laboratories was sent to the state regulator, so the EPA and National Resources and Environment Tasmania Department and they send it to the director of public health for comment. In his advice to me, he provided comments on several aspects of the application, including the nature of the product. That this was a substantial increase in its use within Tasmanian waters. He made reference in particular to antimicrobial resistance and that is a problem.
Ms O’CONNOR – That is a cause for concern.
Mr WEBSTER – His advice, which he issued on the same day as this was announced and made public and is available on our website ‑ his advice to government is consistent with his advice to the public, which is that this antibiotic could be present in the wild fishery and as a result there should be an area around the salmon pens in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel where we should be advising people that fish caught in those areas may have the antibiotic residue within them and you may choose not to eat those in the same way as there is a 21-day exclusion, I think, for salmon being harvested from the pens. He was saying there should be the same sort of exclusion in that three‑kilometre zone across there.
Ms O’CONNOR – That’s interesting, because it counts on fish not travelling outside a notional line on a map that is drawn by government, and the advice doesn’t seem to be particularly strong.
It’s just that, you know, you might not want to eat the fish that had been dosed up with a very heavy‑duty antibiotic which, in a peer‑reviewed paper released last month, shows drastically changed sediment microbial communities, suppressed susceptible taxa, enriched antibiotic‑resistant bacteria, and shifted core biogeochemical pathways, including reduced ecosystem resilience. Is Public Health in Tasmania confident that its advice, both to government and to consumers and users of the marine environment, is based on the latest science?
Mrs ARCHER – Well, that is the advice of the Director of Public Health, and he has confirmed that there is no evidence of harm to human health from consuming traces of florfenicol, but again, reiterating that to enable people to make informed choices and reduce their chance of consuming fish with trace amounts of florfenicol, he has issued that precautionary advice, as noted.
Ms O’CONNOR – Now, is that advice static or is it refreshed? I ask this because all of us at this table represent, to some extent or another, coastal communities, their level of concern about the safety of not only swimming but consuming, let alone the impact on the marine environment. Is that advice from Public Health just a static piece of advice? When you talk about consumers making informed decisions, how can they make an informed decision if there’s a piece of advice at one point – they don’t get told when this substance is being used in the waters. I mean, how often is Public Health re‑examining that advice to consumers, to Tasmanians?
Mrs ARCHER – I think, firstly, there is advice when that product is currently being used in those environments. That information is available and publicly available, and there are maps also available for people, so that they can make those choices.
Ms O’CONNOR – If they go looking for it.
Mrs ARCHER – In relation to is the advice static or not, I think it would be generally true to say that all public health advice is a continuous process and is constantly re‑evaluated. And of course, we take advice that is provided. If that advice changes, we obviously adjust to that as well. I will ask the secretary to make some specific comment around florfenicol.
Ms O’CONNOR – Where is the Director of Public Health? Where is the Director today?
Mrs ARCHER – Where is he? I don’t know that he would normally –
CHAIR – Normally he does, but –
Mr WEBSTER – He hasn’t for the last couple of years. During the COVID emergency he was always on the table, because obviously we had a lot going on in this space, but he does provide us with the briefs to use, and on this particular issue he’s briefed me a number of times directly on it. As the minister said, his advice is not static, and as part of what is happening around the use of this particular antibiotic, there is monitoring going on in the zone around it. That monitoring and the outcomes of that monitoring will be fed to the Director of Public Health, who would then review his advice.
Ms O’CONNOR – Can I just say, for a committee that’s established to scrutinise the Health budget, where there is a line item that says ‘Public Health’, for us not to be able to speak directly to the Director of Public Health, I don’t think is really satisfactory, I really don’t. I recall directors of Public Health in the past, as the Chair said, being at the table, and so I simply note that the absence of the Director this year is disappointing at best.
CHAIR – Have you got another question?
Ms O’CONNOR – Yes. I do.
Mrs ARCHER – I’m certainly happy to take that on board, and also obviously make the point that if there is specific advice that you would like to receive in relation to any of these matters from Public Health, we can also take that on notice for you.
Ms O’CONNOR – Sure, except I’m just one person and the committee’s just five people. There’s a whole constituency out there that wants answers to these questions.
Mrs ARCHER – Yes, I understand.
Ms O’CONNOR – Does Public Health capture data and assess data on disease rates and infectious disease rates? I will give you a couple of metrics and see if you’ve got any information on them, like other public health – like the National Health Service in the UK and Finland Public Health collect. Do we have data, for example, on E. coli infections and hospital episodes?
Mr WEBSTER – There are a number of infections, et cetera, that are notifiable diseases under our legislation.
Ms O’CONNOR – That’s right.
Mr WEBSTER – And they’re notified to them and they collect that data. There’s then a level of collation of that at the national level as well, and just recently passed in the federal parliament is the legislation for the new centre for disease control, or CDC, for Australia which will enhance the ability to monitor these things not just at a state‑by‑state level, but at the national level as well.
Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you. That’s for infectious diseases. There’s another set of metrics that I want to explore. Who might hold this data? Does public health collect E. coli infection data, viral hepatitis infection data, cancer of the lymph nodes data? I’m happy to read this in, and whatever you can provide, and then we can move on. I’m happy to give you this list. I’m looking for data for all‑ages hospital episodes on E. coli infections, viral hepatitis, sarcoidosis of lymph nodes, malignant mast cell tumours, blastic lymphomas, Kaposi’s sarcomas of the lymph nodes, strep A sepsis.
In maternal health – and I don’t know if that’s a different dataset – I’m interested in information on premature births, congenital malformations and developmental disorders between 2019 and 2025; also, whether public health has identified any increase in the number of strokes and myocardial infarctions.
CHAIR – A lot of this doesn’t sound like public health, does it?
Mrs ARCHER – Some of it would sit across health more broadly.
CHAIR – Some of that data is in the perinatal morbidity and mortality report, the maternal health stuff.
Mrs ARCHER – I think generally we can take it on notice.
Mr WEBSTER – Generally take it on notice.
Ms O’CONNOR – Some of that material around maternal health, would that be in the college of obstetrics annual report that you referenced earlier?
Mrs ARCHER – A mortality and morbidity report? Yes, which is what I tabled in the last session.
Ms O’CONNOR – [inaudible] obstetrics council before, so that’s that one the Chair referred to?
Mr WEBSTER – The council of obstetrics and perinatal mortality and morbidity.
CHAIR – That’s right, obstetrics and perinatal mortality and morbidity.
Mr WEBSTER – Which is a committee that reports through to the minister and the secretary. On the categories you had in maternity, some of it is collected and reported through the Tasmanian Health Service rather than Public Health, and some of it is Public Health.
Mrs ARCHER – And just to clarify, you’re looking at hospital presentations of those conditions?
Ms O’CONNOR – Yes. All‑ages hospital presentations.
Mrs ARCHER – We can take it on notice.
Mr WEBSTER – There’s also the cancer registry that’s in existence that would cover some of those categories as well, so we will get all that data together from the various sources.
Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you. It might actually help you form a picture too, so hopefully it’s not just a make‑work scheme for you.
