Two women who believe they were poisoned by 1080 over three years ago say it's ridiculous they are still waiting for answers from health officials.
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Gwen Gardner and her sister were having a picnic up Māori Gully Road near Kaiata on the West Coast in June 2014 when a helicopter flew over them - a while later they began to feel sick, and when they returned to their car they noticed 1080 pellets nearby.
They were unaware they were in an active 1080 drop-zone and say since that day they've suffered ill health.
Ms Gardner obtained a draft report by the West Coast Medical Officer of Health Cheryl Brunton in 2015 under the Privacy Act, but said she has not heard from her since.
She said the draft report left more questions than answers.
"We very innocently were having a picnic in the middle of no-where and inadvertently stayed in the drop zone for five to six hours and no-one really cares, they are supposed to have all these safety procedures in place and they actually weren't there."
The report said the women drove past warning signs, were on private land and that a security guard saw the women go up Māori Gully Creek Road.
"The main security control point in the vicinity which was manned by a security guard on the day of the 1080 drop was a further 200 metres past the junction of the track the women travelled down," the draft report said.
Ms Gardner said if a security guard saw them going up the road, why did he not go and get them or report it to someone.
The draft report found the company which carried out the drop, Vector Control Services, did not breach any of the permission conditions.
It found it is highly unlikely the women were exposed to significant amounts of 1080 but they may have been exposed to a low dose over a short period of time.
Ms Gardner and her sister believe health issues they've had since the drop including a heart murmur and breathing issues are due to their exposure to 1080.
"Why do we have to wait for a proper report to be done - something is not right, but there's not a lot we can do about it, we've tried to contact Cheryl Brunton but get no-where."
The women had a lawyer who had offered to help for free, but due to delays with the final report the lawyer had to withdraw the offer.
RNZ has also attempted to contact Ms Brunton on numerous occasions to get a response to this story - also with no reply.
National Poison Centre director Adam Pomerleau said he was not familiar with Ms Gardner's case but said the 1080 compound can be toxic to humans.
"It's basically a metabolic poison, it affects a cells ability to produce energy, if a cell can't produce energy it will shut down and die, people that present with 1080 poisoning are treated for the symptoms and kept comfortable because there is no antidote.
"It is actually hard to find signs of 1080 in humans, it basically gets put into the cells metabolic pathways and there is no specific test that I am aware of that can say whether or not a person has been exposed to it," Mr Pomerleau said.
Toxicologist, and professor of chemistry Ian Shaw said for 1080 to poison humans it had to be ingested.
"It's not very well absorbed through the skin, but in this situation if they were sitting there having a picnic and the helicopter flew over and dropped dust on their food, they may have eaten a small amount which could cause low dose toxicity, I think that would be highly unlikely but not out of the bounds of possibility.
"If you have a small dose, it's absorbed and then the cells that are affected can put right the damage, if you have a huge dose, there is very little you can do and you would die but that's very very unlikely," Mr Shaw said.
Mr Shaw said 1080 is extremely toxic, and should only be used in areas where people couldn't come into contact with it.