The debate over 1080 was supposed to be settled, but fierce opposition continues to it being used in New Zealand.
The Department of Conservation (DoC), Federated Farmers and Forest and Bird have all come out in support of using 1080.
However protesters are continuing their campaign, marching to Parliament this week to demand a national ban.
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Appearing on RadioLIVE this week, both sides talked to Morning Talk host Mark Sainsbury about why they're for or against 1080.
Why do we use it?
Federated Farmers NZ board member and environment and pest management spokesperson Chris Allen says we need 1080 to protect our dairy industry.
He says pests like possums get sick from TB and stagger out onto the dairy fields. The inquisitive cows inspect the dying possums and get infected.
"1080 is a tool. It's not the only tool, but it's one of the most cost effective tools we've got for looking after our food supply chain where we can end up with TB," he says.
"New Zealand is a massive landscape and it's got some really high challenging mountains and hills where possums and rats and stoats live.
"You've got do to it on a large scale. If there was a better tool in the tool box I'm sure we'd be trying to use it."
Possums are just one of the targeted species. 1080 is also being used against pests including rats, stoats and ferrets.
Forest and Bird chief conservation adviser Kevin Hackwell told Sainsbury using 1080 is "really important" to protect our wildlife, and we can't afford not to be looking after our native species.
"We need a tool that can be used over very large areas, very remote, rugged and inaccessible areas and can actually protect our wildlife in the forest," he says.
"We need a toxin, we need a tool that can work very effective again mammals. That's why we use 1080 and why we use most of the world's supply."
DoC threatened species ambassador Nicola Toki agrees, saying DoC is doing its "very best" to protect native species by using 1080.
"This is our national identity at stake," she says.
"Why would we be involved in something that would hurt the things that we've dedicated our lives to protect."
Why do people oppose it?
Operation Ban 1080 Facebook page organiser Julz Olsen says the best solution to possum control is fur trapping.
"If you go into a forest after a drop, it is dead. It is dead silent. There is not a bird chirping, nothing," he says.
"It just poisons, poisons, poisons, kills, kills, kills."
However the Pest Control Education Trust says trapping is "less efficient" than 1080, as it's more expensive and traps can't be deployed fast enough or in sufficient numbers to control pest numbers.
One of the main problems with 1080 is the by-kill - the effects the poison has on non-targeted species like pigs and deer which eat the bait and die.
Bill O'Leary, spokesperson for the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association, says 1080 has a major effect on hunters and people who rely on the animals for meat.
"We're an advocate for hunting, we're an advocate for the animals that we hunt," he says.
"We see 1080 and the way it is used as resulting in a lot of by-kill in the animals we value for meat."
He calls it a "cruel death" for animals hunters have a lot of respect for, something another caller emphasised.
"I want to get rid of 1080 because it is a cruel torturous death for any animal or insect that is infected by it," Leslie told Sainsbury.
"Not even a rat deserves to die the way this slow agonising death happens."
Is the government presiding over a policy that's killing New Zealanders?
Environmental lawyer Sue Grey accuses the organisations in favour of 1080 of pushing a "pro-poison agenda" and contaminating water supplies.
"We know it's toxic for humans, it's killed a lot of humans around the world, and it's suspected to have killed a lot of humans in New Zealand," she told Sainsbury.
According to Hayes' Handbook of Pesticide Toxicology there have been multiple deaths overseas, mostly involving youths and children accidently ingesting the substance.
But Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage is not buying it, and wants to put a stop to the debate once and for all.
"There have been over 2000 samples taken from waterways and none have shown that 1080 has levels that breach drinking water standards," she says.
And University of Otago Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology's Dr Belinda Cridge says it's unlikely 1080 leaching into waterways is causing health problems.
"The understanding is that the original 1080 compound is broken down quickly in the environment and that 1080 doesn't persist in the environment or water like many other toxins," she told the Science Media Centre.
"This makes it unlikely that it will accumulate in waterways and cause down-stream poisonings."
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