Agricultural area

A significant use of ethoxylated and propoxylated amines is as antistatic agents (qv) in the textile and plastics industry (86). Ethoxylates are also used in the agricultural area as adjuvants. Ethoxylated fatty amines and derivatives are available from Akzo Chemicals Inc. (Ethomeen) (73) Henkel Corporation (Trymeen) (87) GAE Chemicals Corporation (RhcJ)ne Poulenc) (Katapol) (88) Jetco Chemicals Inc. (The Procter Gamble Company) (fet Amine) (75) Mazer Chemicals (PPG Industries) (Mazeen) (89) Sherex (Adogen) (76) and Tomah Products (Exxon Chemical Company) (Tomah E) (77). 

Insecticide methomyl is a very toxic pesticide and is highly soluble in water (57.9 g/1). It has a low sorption affinity to soil and can cause groundwater and surface water contamination in agricultural areas. Solubilities of methomyl in different solvents are in methanol 1000 g/1, in aceton 730 g/1, in ethanol 420 g/1, in isopropanol 220 g/1, in toluene 30 g/1. 

We only briefly mentioned alkaline stabilization, but in reality this is a variation of sludge pasteurization. The basic process uses elevated pH and temperature to produce a stabilized, disinfected product. The two alkaline stabilization systems most common in the U.S. are a lime pasteurization system and a cement kiln dust pasteurization system. The lime pasteurization product has a wet-cake consistency, while the kiln dust pasteurization has a moist solid like consistency. Both products can be transported to agricultural areas for ultimate use. Literature studies show that the kiln dust product can capture a marketable value of 6.60/Mg ( 6.00/ton) to offset hauling costs, while the lime product does not appear to be able to capture financial credits for product revenues at this point in time. The reasons for this are not entirely clear. 

The well-documented case of the United States serves as an illustration. During the period 1870 to 1900 the farm population was increased through a rapid expansion of the agricultural area. The agricultural labor force increased by 60 percent, but there was a replacement of labor by nonland capital in the form of horses and mules. New and more efficient types of horse-drawn machinery including plows, cultivars, seed drills, grain harvesters, and mowers became available. 

Except for zones below the level of permanent ground water where the environment is water-saturated, and for zones of dry surface sand, continual variation may be expected to occur in the water content of soils. This is usually dependent on rainfall, snow, flooding and such climatic influences, though irrigation practices in many agricultural areas influence water content and hence the corrosion rates. 

Methyl parathion and methyl paraoxon concentrations were measured in the condensate from coastal fog in California. Levels ranged from 0.046 to 0.43 pg/L methyl parathion and from 0.039 to 0.49 pg/L methyl paraoxon. The authors noted that the transformation of the methyl parathion to the methyl paraoxon appeared to take place during atmospheric transport of methyl parathion away from the agricultural areas (Schomburg et al. 1991). 

Exposures of Children. More studies are needed to assess the exposures of children living in agricultural areas to methyl parathion residues in air, soil, or water. More studies are also needed to assess the exposures of children in the general population to residues of methyl parathion that might be present in food, milk, or water, or on contaminated clothing and skin from occupationally exposed household members. 

Willis WO, de Peyster A, Molgaard CA, et al. 1993. Pregnancy outcome among women exposed to pesticides through work or residence in an agricultural area. J Occup Med 35 943-949. 

Runoff waters from agricultural areas have been found to contain low concentrations of endosulfan in the aqueous phase and higher concentrations in the particulate phase of the runoff. Eor example, runoff from... 

Soils sampled at two sites in creek beds and drainage ditches in an agricultural area in the Point Mugu watershed near Oxnard, California, contained endosulfan at concentrations between 20 and 30 ppm. The majority of the other sites had much lower concentrations (Leung et al. 1998). 

Miles JRW, Harris CR. 1971. Insecticide residues in a stream and a controlled drainage system in agricultural areas of southwestern Ontario, 1970. Pestic Monit J 5 289-294. 

Sparrowhawks declined very sharply in the agricultural areas of eastern England where cyclodienes were widely used, becoming virtually extinct in parts of East Anglia where they had once been common. Such declines were not seen, however. 

There are now several examples of European countries which have increased their organic agricultural areas, starting from just such a low base as Britain has now. Sweden increased its organic agricultural percentage from 1.6 to 11.2% in four years, Denmark has increased from 1.5 to 5.9% and Austria reached 10.9% by the year 2000. 

Decreased snow cover harms agricultural areas. 

An application of transport and compartment-type models to hazard analysis is described in the paper by Honeycutt and Ballantine (19). The compound CGA-72662 running off from agricultural areas into surface waters was modeled in order to set safe application procedures consistent with the protection of aquatic environments. Patterson, et al (2 0) have adapted the UTM model to a software package that is generally applicable to fate assessments of toxic substances in air, water, soil and biota. Their work, now in working draft form, is being used by Dr. William Wood and Dr. Joan Lefler in the Office of Toxic Substances of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

Lead concentrations in maternal and umbilical cord blood have been reported by Greek researchers for 50 parturient women at delivery. Twenty-five of the women lived in industrial areas with high air pollution, and twenty-five lived in agricultural areas with low air pollution. The mean lead concentrations (expressed as mean standard deviation) for the women living in areas with high air pollution were 37.2 4.7 pg/L in maternal blood and 20 3.4 pg/L in umbilical cord blood (correlation coefficient, r = 0.57). The mean lead concentrations for the women living in areas with low air pollution were 20.5 5.6 pg/L in maternal blood and 12.9 3.6 pg/L in umbilical cord blood (correlation coefficient, r = 0.70). The authors conclude that the placenta demonstrates a dynamic protective function that is amplified when maternal PbB levels are raised (Vasilios et al. 1997). 

Alegria A, Barbera R, Farre R, et al. 1990. Evaluation of antimony, cadmium, and lead levels in vegetables, drinking and raw water from different agricultural areas. Int J Environ Anal Chem 38 65-73. 

During freeze warnings in certain agricultural areas, we often hear that farmers spray their crops with water to provide protection from the cold temperatures. What chemical principles are growers applying to protect their crops ... 

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