The Insecticide Act

The indiscriminate, improper, and careless use and management of pesticides have caused untold health hazards to animals and humans and to the living environment 

There is a need, therefore, to educate workers at workplaces in fields or factories abont the consequences of the misuse of pesticides and the important precautions 

---

The other reason for a prominent PTS pollution is, India is yet to formulate a comprehensive policy on pesticides and other chemicals. The Insecticides Act, 1968 does regulate the manufactures, registration, use, export and import of pesticides in the country but does not have much control on its consumers. There are many other policy decisions and Acts on environmental management in India which will be discussed later in this chapter. India has already banned the use of 9 of the 12 POPs slated for ultimate elimination from the world use in a United Nations treaty adopted in Stockholm on May 23, 2001. The three remaining POPs include PCBs, DDT and dioxins and furans. 

Source Data compiled by Center for Sustainable Agriculture from U.S. EPA s Chemicals Evaluated for Carcinogenic Potential, July 2004, and from Insecticides Registered under Section 9(3) of the Insecticides Act 1968 of India, June 2005. 

The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) is the main statute under which all pesticides are distributed and sold in the United States. Federal regulation of pesticides started with the Insecticide Act of 1910, which was directed primarily toward protecting consumers from fraudulent pesticide products it remained the major law governing pesticide products for 37 years. The Insecticide Act was essentially a labeling statute and did not require registration of products or establish any significant safety standards. 

Environmental protection and public health were not the concerns of the Insecticide Act of 1910, which remained in effect until 1947. The law aimed to guarantee that buyers of what were then called economic poisons got what they paid for. Thus it required accurate labeling and authorized seizure of adulterated or misbranded products, but did nothing to ensure anything was safe. 

At this time, regulation of dioxin was piecemeal and fragmented between authorities who were functioning under the Insecticide Act of 1910, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act of 1972, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act as amended by the Clean Water Act of 1977, the Clean Air Act as amended, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Consumer Product Safety Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA). 

The United States has the most laws regarding environmental safety and health. The National Environmental PoHcy Act (NEPA) of 1969 has resulted in the following acts Eederal Insecticides, Eungicide and Rodenticide (EIERA), Resource Conservation and Recovery (RCRA), Superfund (CERCLA), Superfund Amendments and Reauthori2ation Act (SARA) Plus Tide III, Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA), Clean Water (CWA), Water Quahty, Safe Drinking Water (SDWA), and Waste Minimi2ation and Control. 

Much controversy has arisen regarding the ability of mixtures of weakly estrogenic compounds to act synergistically, notably the synergistic potential of mixtures of PCBs or of the insecticides dieldrin and toxaphene. " Recent studies suggest that the action of mixtures is at least additive. "... 

Moreover organophosphoric acid esters have found application as insecticides (e.g. Parathion). Some derivatives are highly toxic to man (e.g. Sarin, Soman). The organophosphonates act as inhibitors of the enzyme cholinesterase by phosphorylating it. This enzyme is involved in the proper function of the parasympathetic nervous system. A concentration of 5 x 10 g/L in the air can already cause strong toxic effects to man. 

Mechanism of action can be an important factor determining selectivity. In the extreme case, one group of organisms has a site of action that is not present in another group. Thus, most of the insecticides that are neurotoxic have very little phytotoxicity indeed, some of them (e.g., the OPs dimethoate, disyston, and demeton-5 -methyl) are good systemic insecticides. Most herbicides that act upon photosynthesis (e.g., triaz-ines and substituted ureas) have very low toxicity to animals (Table 2.7). The resistance of certain strains of insects to insecticides is due to their possessing a mutant form of the site of action, which is insensitive to the pesticide. Examples include certain strains of housefly with knockdown resistance (mutant form of Na+ channel that is insensitive to DDT and pyrethroids) and strains of several species of insects that are resistant to OPs because they have mutant forms of acetylcholinesterase. These... 

One of the difficulties encountered by producers of economic poisons has been the preparation of labeling which will comply with the laws and regulations of both the Federal Government and the various states in which the product is marketed. This difficulty has been aggravated by differences in interpretation by different enforcement officials. The Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act recognizes this difficulty and authorizes the... 

Ryanodine (Figure 3.24) is derived from Ryania speciosa and represents the first successful discovery of a natural insecticide in a collaborative programme between Merck and Rutgers University. The compound acts by binding to the calcium channels in the sarcoplastic reticulum of muscles, thereby causing calcium ions to enter the cells with death following rapidly thereafter. 

Documentation of innovation depression in pesticides, another area that requires pre-market registration is equally as dramatic. William Tucker, in his very recent Of Mites and Men, (23) discusses the frustration of several innovative companies trying to develop biological controls instead of target-specific toxic insecticides. Like Grabowski and drugs, Dr. Wendell Mullison reported in 1975 that since the enactment of FEPCA, the pesticide Act of 1971, the number of major pesticides introduced has fallen from two per year in the 1960 to 1970 decade to less than one per year for the period 1971 to 1975 (24). 

The chlorinated hydrocarbons such as DDT act on nerves in a manner that is still not fully understood. One of the largest classes of insecticides acts on the enzyme acetylcholinesterase of nerve synapses. 

---