Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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Safety and Health (NIOSH) also recommends a limit of 0.25 mg/m3 for
both compounds for up to a ten-hour work day, forty-hour week. As noted
above, the Food and Drug Administration regulates the residues of aldrin
and dieldrin in raw foods, although the actual levels of aldrin and dieldrin
in the samples were not noted. The FDA's allowable range is from 0 to 0.1
ppm, depending on the type of food product.
Aldrin is one of twelve persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that have
been chosen as priority pollutants by the United Nations Environment Pro-
gramme for their impact on human health and environment. It is one of
the organochlorine insecticides that is persistent in ecosystems and accu-
mulates in fatty tissues. “A growing body of scientific evidence associates
human exposure to individual POPs with cancer, neurobehavioral impair-
ment, immune systembiochemical alterations and possible dysfunction, re-
productive dysfunction, shortened period of lactation, and diabetes” (Orris
et al. 2000, 7). POPs are also semivolatile, which means they can vaporize or
be absorbed into the atmosphere. So these compounds can be transported
great distances in the air and water (UNEP 2003). Some of the highest levels
have been documented in both the northern and southern arctic areas (Orris
et al. 2000). Thus, the impacts of industrial agriculture are geographically
diffuse, reaching every location on earth.
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“I
nerts” Are Not
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Not only are the active ingredients of our agrichemicals an issue of concern,
but so too are the additional ingredients. The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide,
and Rodenticide Act of 1947 established definitions that are still in effect
today: an“active ingredient is one that prevents, destroys, repels or mitigates
a pest, or is a plant regulator, defoliant, desiccant or nitrogen stabilizer.”The
active ingredient and its percentage weight must be listed on the pesticide
label. On the other hand, “inert ingredients” are “any ingredient in the
product that is not intended to affect a target pest.” These inert ingredients
are not listed on the label. In 1997, the EPA issued the Pesticide Regulation
Notice 97-6, which encourages pesticide companies to use the words “other
ingredients” because “it should not be assumed that all inert ingredients are
non-toxic” (USEPA-Inert Ingredients 2003). In addition, many pesticides
actually break down in the environment into very different chemicals that
are just as toxic as their parent compounds (USGS 1999). For example, the
commonly used herbicide atrazine breaks down into deethylatrazine (DEA),
which may react very differently than the active ingredient itself.
Chemical corporations are only required to conduct safety tests of the
