Environment, pesticides

Unlike other chemical pollutants of the environment, pesticides are purposeful environmental contaminants added to achieve specific goals in agriculture, industrial production, public health, forestry, road maintenance and construction, etc. Hence the term "economic poisons" originally employed, but later substituted by the less pejorative "pesticides". Pesticides are classified commercially... 

The forest environment is quite different from the agricultural environment. Pesticide applications occur at infrequent... 

Within the forest environment pesticides are limited to a relatively few specific use patterns however in terms of area treated (and quantity of active ingredients applied) these restricted patterns still represent usage on a rather massive scale. Herbicides are used... 

Pesticides that move away from the release site may cause environmental contamination. Pesticides move away from the release site both indoors and outdoors and may cause harm in both environments. Pesticides move in several ways, including ... 

House dust is a sink and reservoir for sernivolatile and particle-bound pesticides. Thus, it is a measure for the average contamination of an indoor environment. Pesticides found in house dust are those that are (1) stable in the indoor environment and (2) regularly applied in formulations to fight pests indoors. In contrast to an outdoor environment, where modern pesticides are degraded rather quickly by microorganisms, hydrolysis and UV hght, pesticides used indoors tend to be persistent [85]. Thus, they are a reservoir for chronic exposure. 

In agriculture, several hundreds of different pesticides have been used worldwide over the last few decades. Owing to their widespread appHcations and persistence in the environment, pesticides are acciunulating in media such as soil and ground water. Many pesticides exhibit endocrine-disrupting activity, which poses a threat to public health and local ecosystems, and are therefore regulated. In the European Union, the maximiun allowable concentrations in... 

Published by the Department of Health, U.K. Covers chemicals in environment, pesticides, industrial chemicals, air and water pollution. Citations taken from journals, conference proceedings, government documents, grey literature etc. received by the Department of Health Library, London. Covers publications 1984 to date. 

Exposure to pesticides may occur in a variety of different ways including worker exposure during manufacture, during transport, and exposure to residues in edible crops, soil and water. Adverse effects on man may result from the compound itself, its mammalian metabolites, plant and soil metabolites or, possibly, from breakdown products in the environment. Pesticides are often dispersed widely in the environment as stable materials, such as DDT, which may remain as virtually permanent contaminants, though at detectable concentrations. This, together with the fact that pesticides are highly biologically-active molecules, requires a fine balance to be set between the benefits of pesticides and their possible hazard to man or the environment. 

Somasundaram L, Coats JR (eds) (1991) Pesticide Transformation Products Fate and Significance in the Environment. Pesticide transformation products in the environment. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, pp 2-9... 

Crump-Wiesner, H.J., H.R. Feltz, and M.L. Yates. 1974. A study of the distribution of polychlorinated biphenyls in the aquatic environment. Pesticides Monitoring Journal 8 157-161. 

The effects of pollution can be direct, such as toxic emissions providing a fatal dose of toxicant to fish, animal life, and even human beings. The effects also can be indirect. Toxic materials which are nonbiodegradable, such as waste from the manufacture of insecticides and pesticides, if released to the environment, are absorbed by bacteria and enter the food chain. These compounds can remain in the environment for long periods of time, slowly being concentrated at each stage in the food chain until ultimately they prove fatal, generally to predators at the top of the food chain such as fish or birds. 

Combustion in an incinerator is the only practical way to deal with many waste streams.This is particularly true of solid and concentrated wastes and toxic wastes such as those containing halogenated hydrocarbons, pesticides, herbicides, etc. Many of the toxic substances encountered resist biological degradation and persist in the natural environment for a long period of time. Unless they are in dilute aqueous solution, the most effective treatment is usually incineration. 

Chemical, cultural, and mechanical weed control practices have been relatively successful ia reducing yield losses from weeds (448). However, herbicide-resistant weed populations, soil erosion, pesticide persistence ia the environment, and other problems associated with technologies used (ca 1993) to control weeds have raised concerns for the long-term efficacy and sustainability of herbicide-dependent crop production practices (449). These concerns, coupled with ever-increasing demands for food and fiber, contribute to the need for innovative weed management strategies (450). 

California environmental law pesticides, chemicals, biotechnology chemicals, pesticides, ha2ardous wastes state international environmental issues chemistry, pesticides, environment environmental poHcy pollution, waste management U.S. environmental regulations... 

Pesticides are more closely regulated than other chemicals because pesticides are intentiaHy appHed in the environment, often repeatedly at relatively high rates. In the United States, pesticides are regulated under the federal Insecticide, fungicide and Rodenticide Act (EIERA), and residues from uses of pesticides in food or feed crops are regulated under Sections 408 and 409 of the federal food, Dmg and Cosmetics Act (EEDCA). 

Environmental Chemistry. Requirements for data on pesticides in the environment include both laboratory and field studies. The purpose of these studies is to identify and assess the potential ha2ards associated with each use of a pesticide in the environment in which it is to be used (20). 

K. D. Racke and A. R. LesHe, eds.. Pesticides in Urban Environments Tate and Significance, ACS Symposium Series No. 522, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., 1993, 385 pp. 

U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Tide 40 Protection of the Environment, Subchapter E EIERA—Pesticide Programs, Parts 150 to 189, Rev. July 1,... 

There is a strong relationship between the amount of pesticide appHed and the amount detected in soil and water. Some background information on pesticide usage and terminology is useful in understanding their impact on the environment. 

Pesticides are susceptible to a variety of transformations in the environment, including both chemical degradation and microbial metaboHsm. Microbial transformations are catalyzed exclusively by enzymes, whereas chemical transformations are mediated by a variety of organic and inorganic compounds. Many pesticide transformations can occur either chemically or biologically. Consequentiy, most pesticide dissipation studies include sterile treatments to... 

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