Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 9
PESTICIDES AND
ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION
I.
PESTICIDES IN THE ENVIRONMENT
The environment is everything that is around us. It includes not only the
natural elements that the word "environment" most often brings to mind, but
also people and the man-made components of our world. Neither is the envi-
ronment limited to the outdoors—it also includes the indoor areas in which we
live and work.
The environment, then, is much more than the oceans and the ozone
layer. It is air, soil, water, plants, animals, houses, restaurants, office build-
ings, and factories and all that they contain. Anyone who uses a pesticide—
indoors or outdoors, in a city or in the country—must consider how that pes-
ticide will affect the environment.
The user must ask two questions:
1.
How will this pesticide affect the immediate environment at the site where
it is being used?
2.
What are the dangers that the pesticide will move out of the use site and
cause harm to other parts of the environment?
Pesticides can harm all types of environments if they are not used cor-
rectly.
Pesticide product labeling statements are intended to alert you to particular
environmental concerns that a pesticide product poses. The lack of a particular
precautionary statement does not necessarily mean that the product poses no
hazard to the environment.
Both the public and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are be-
coming increasingly concerned about harmful effects on the environment from
the use of pesticides. As a result, EPA is looking closely at environmental
effects as it considers new applications for registration, and it also is taking
another look at existing pesticide registrations. Hazards to humans had been
the primary reason for EPA to classify a pesticide as a restricted-use product.
Now, more and more pesticide labels list environmental effects, such as con-
