Publications by authors named "Marnie Prickett"

Aim: We aimed to estimate the current dietary energy content of food exports for Aotearoa New Zealand and food security during "nuclear winter" scenarios following a nuclear war.

Methods: From published sources we estimated dietary energy available from the major domains of food exports, with adjustments for wastage. The impacts on food production in New Zealand during three nuclear winter scenarios were based on those published in Nature Food in 2022 and from an earlier New Zealand Planning Council study.

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Background: Recent studies linking low levels of nitrate in drinking water to colorectal cancer have raised public concerns over nitrate contamination. The aim of this study was to analyze the media discourse on the potential human health hazard of nitrates in drinking water in a high-income country with a large livestock industry: New Zealand (NZ).

Methods: Searches of media sources ("major newspapers") held by the Factiva database for the NZ setting in the five-year period 17 December 2016 to 20 December 2021.

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A 2016 drinking water-related campylobacteriosis outbreak in Aotearoa New Zealand made much of an entire town sick leading to reforms colloquially called "Three Waters", which aims to improve the management and delivery of waste, storm and drinking water systems. Public discourse on the Three Waters reforms has been dominated by anti-co-governance rhetoric, concerns around privatisation and loss of local control and alternative less comprehensive reform models. This debate has drowned out the fundamental problem statement justifying the reforms, that is, the management of drinking water resources is currently: 1) demonstrably inadequate to protect public health and promote health equity; and 2) economically inefficient.

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