Pesticide using

Chlorbenside is a pesticide used to control red spider mites It is prepared by the sequence shown Identify compounds A and B in this sequence What is the structure of chlorbenside" ... 

Regulating Pesticides in Food The De/anej Paradox, Report of Board on Agriculture, Committee on Scientific and Regulatory Issues Underlying Pesticide Use Patterns and Agricultural Innovation, U.S. National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1987, 272 pp. 

The heibicides continue to dominate both the amount and total cash value of pesticides sold in the United States. The lea ding pesticides used (by weight) in the United States aie shown in Table 2. 

This is a highly efficient barrier against evaporative losses of volatile compounds, which also improves the peak width of the early eluting compounds. This system has been successfully applied to a group of pesticides, using -decane as the co-solvent and has enabled a group of volatile phosphorus pesticides to be determined (95). The experimental conditions used in this work are shown in Table 13.2. 

Pesticide use was not Carson s chosen topic. She preferred to author works that simply fostered a deeper appreciation of nature. A shy and soft-spoken woman, Carson wrote with an Albert Schweitzer-like reverence for life. All was sacred to her. Her style was lyrical, vivid, and romantic, falling mostly within the nature-writing tradition. She gave her creatures anthropomorphic characteristics, set them in dramatic situations, hoping, she said, to make animals in the woods or waters, where they live, as alive to others as they are to me. ... 

In this chapter, the agricultural, economic, and environmental impacts of pesticide use in world and U.S. food production are analyzed. In addition, an assessment is made of the potential that substituting nonchemical controls for some pesticide use would have in reducing chemicals and providing adequate pest controls. 

One reason for the rapid growth in the use of pesticides worldwide has been the "Green Revolution" (5), Although there have been some benefits from pesticide use in agriculture, they also cause significant environmental and public health problems. The same is true in public health where Insecticides have been used to control malaria. However, today Increased resistance to insecticides in mosquitoes and Increased resistance to drugs by the malarial parasite are resulting in an explosive increase of malaria worldwide (5). 

However, the American consumer now seems ready to accept some reduction in cosmetic standards, provided pesticide use is diminished (47). Their concern about pesticide use is confirmed by the growing popularity of organic food stores and supermarkets that guarantee pesticide-free produce (48). Also, the "Big Green" initiative in California, although it didn t pass, signals that consumers are alarmed about pesticide use and are willing to take political action to make their views known. 

J., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, personal communication, 1989). The United States has fewer recorded pesticide poisonings per unit weight of applied pesticide than in other countries. For Instance, the U.S. has only about l/50th the number of world poisonings but uses about one-fifth of all the pesticide used in the world. Thus, it appears that the U.S. program to regulate the use of pesticides is more effective than in most parts of the world. 

In addition to poisoning humans, pesticides affect agricultural ecosystems and spread beyond into surrounding terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. As a result, detrimental environmental effects follow pesticide use in the United States. Some of these are delineated below ... 

The above analysis is somewhat oversimplified and is considered an Incomplete assessment of the existing environmental problems caused by pesticides. Again, it must be emphasized that there is no completely satisfactory way to summarize all of the environmental and social costs in terms of dollars. For example, it is impossible, if not unethical to place a monetary value on human lives either lost, diseased, or disabled because of pesticide use. It is equally difficult to place a monetary value on total wildlife losses. Good health, and Indeed life itself have no price tag. 

From this analysis it is clear that in addition to their benefits, the use of pesticides in food production not only causes serious public health problems but also considerable damage to vital agricultural and natural ecosystems in the United States and world. A conservative estimate suggests that the environmental and social costs of pesticide use in the United States total about 4 billion each year. Worldwide the yearly environmental and public health costs are probably at least 100 billion. This is several times the 18 bllllon/yr spent on pesticides in the world. 

This analysis has demonstrated that pesticide use in the world could be reduced by approximately 50% without any reduction in crop yields (in some cases increased yields) or the food supply. This effort would require applying pesticides only-when-necessary plus using various combinations of the nonchemical control alternatives currently available (34). Although food production costs might Increase slightly (0.5% to 1%), the added costs would be more than offset by the positive benefits to public health and the environment (15). 

ICAITI. An Environmental and Economic Study of the Consequences of Pesticide Use in Central American Cotton Production Final Report, Central American Research Institute for Industry, United Nations Environment Programme Guatemala, 1977. 

Public Health Impact of Pesticides Used in Agriculture Report of a WHO/UNEP Working Group World Health Organization Geneva, Switzerland, United Nations Environment Programme Nairobi, Kenya. 

---