Pesticides public health usage

Interestingly, if we chart the pesticide usage in various countries for the past 70 years alongside life expectancy, they rise in parallel. At the same time, age-adjusted cancer risks for nonsmokers have been declining. The use of chemistry in medicines and public health interventions has had more direct human health impact, but pesticides help reduce the real cost of fruits and vegetables. That s vital, because the 25% of people who eat the most produce have only half the total cancer risks of the 25% who eat the least ... 

These findings are highly significant. The fact that domestic usage of the chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides has reached a peak and is on the decline can only mean that the maximum amounts of this class of pesticide chemicals in the environment have already been reached and can only decline in the future. It stands to reason, therefore, that the residue levels of these compounds have reached a peak in the fatty tissues of humans, wildlife, and domestic animals that have had access to residues of these pesticide chemicals in the environment and are probably declining. From the standpoint of public health, there is not one shred of evidence that the traces of these compounds in the body fat have any detrimental effect. Of course, it cannot be stated absolutely that some effect will not be discovered in the future. However, by the same token, it cannot be stated absolutely that this effect will not be beneficial ... 

MacMillan Smoke Wars, pp. 243—245 Quivik, Smoke and Tailings, pp. 434— 438. The Anaconda smelter produced 14,000 tons of arsenic in 1933 (it is unclear whether this is expressed as As or as As203) T. LeCain, The Limits of Eco-efficiency Arsenic Pollution and the Cottrell Electrical Precipitator in the U.S. Copper Smelting Industry, Environmental History, vol. 5, pp. 336—351 (2000). Arsenic usage for pesticides in the United States in 1934 can be calculated from P. A. Neal et al., A Study of the Effect of Lead Arsenate Exposure on Orchardists and Consumers of Sprayed Fruit, Public Health Service Bulletin 267, 1941, p. 12, as approximately 21,000 tons (as As). In this calculation, the average arsenic content of lead arsenate is assumed to be 20% and the annual consumption of Paris green is assumed to be 4.5 million pounds. 

The industrial production and usage of pesticides has its relatively short but controversial history. The modem development of agriculture would be impossible and present status of public health would be on far lower level without pesticides application. In the two main areas of pesticide current... 

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