Mike Butler: Scientist says P-risk over-hyped

The P-contamination test does not point to a health risk and property owners are spending megabucks on unnecessary testing and remediation, a toxicologist confirmed this week. The advice from toxicologist Nick Kim is that testing for P, a street name for methamphetamine, does not necessarily show any health risk. (1)

Dr Kim is a senior lecturer in environmental chemistry at Massey University.

Two years ago, a request under the Official Information Act showed no recorded illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths resulting from methamphetamine contamination or fires from P labs. (See http://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.co.nz/2014/05/mike-butler-p-lab-risk-vastly.html)

Mike Butler: Tide turning for same-sex couples?

Fair Go presenter Alison Mau put her case for same-sex marriage, on TV ONE’s Close Up on Wednesday, by claiming that "there's a tide of feeling globally about this issue”. As a woman in a same-sex relationship wants to get married, Mau said “it's the fact that I could get married 15 years ago when I married for the first time...and suddenly I can't marry who I want to marry now. And that seems odd and silly and outdated."

Is there an actual tide of feeling, or is it that the tide of feeling involves a few luminaries (United States President Barack Obama, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, and now Mau) supporting same-sex marriage for political or other reasons?