Downloaded by 80.82.77.83 on May 28, 2018 | https://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: June 1, 1966 | doi: 10.1021/ba-1966-0060.pr001
PREFACE V U T h e n historians of future generations write of our era, they w i l l note wryly how much of our technical capability was devoted to producing commodities inevitably destined to contaminate our environment. The most spectacular example must be the automobile. Its exhaust pollutes our atmosphere; it has brought about the need for ever-spreading highways, which are indeed rapidly "autodegradable," but are still permanent scars on the environment. Ultimately, it is discarded i n a junkyard, which detracts from the beauty of the landscape. Another offending commodity, synthetic detergents, has a particularly striking propensity to affect the purity of our water resources. Detergents are produced with the specific intention that after a single use, and virtually undiminished in quantity, they w i l l be promptly discharged to the most convenient watercourse. Chemical pesticides hold a unique position among the environmental contaminants since distribution i n the environment is the way they are used. A d d i n g to their impact is the fact that pesticides *are fashioned and valued for their deadly effect on living organisms. The result is of i n evitable concern to both laymen and scientists. There is good cause for concern about the kind and extent of defilement of the environment that pesticides can produce. Pesticides have been spread throughout the environment; they have been found i n the air we breathe, in the streams and lakes that supply our drinking water, i n the clothing we wear, and, indeed, in our very bodies. Large numbers of birds, fish, and forest animals have succumbed to these poisons. The same poisons have been found in the bodies of creatures in the remote reaches of the world—fish in the Mid-Pacific and water fowl in the Antarctic. The concern over the threats of pesticide danger implied in these discoveries includes, of course, apprehension about the less obvious consequences to humans. This general concern evoked this symposium, which was designed to present a clear perspective on the environmental hazards of organic pesticides, the necessary background knowledge, and the approaches to be used i n assessing the problem. The problems of pesticides in foods have long been recognized and studied extensively; therefore, this symposium was devoted only to nonfood aspects of the environment. vii
Rosen and Kraybill; Organic Pesticides in the Environment Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1966.
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The symposium was arranged to include each of the major elements of the pesticide problem. Some organic compounds are used as pesticides because they have a useful combination of chemical, physical, and biological properties. The chemical and physical properties determine how these materials spread in the environment by volatility and solubility; these properties also affect the persistence of pesticides i n terms of hydrolysis, oxidation, and removal by adsorption. The biological properties determine not only the purpose for which pesticides are used, but also the degree of incidental hazard to other living things, even i n minute traces in the environment and in animal tissues. The method of use is an important factor i n determining what part of the environment becomes contaminated. Aerial dusting is obviously a greater hazard than careful, direct application to crops since the airplane contaminates air, soil and surface water simultaneously. To appraise the extent of environmental contamination is a problem in organic pesticide analysis. Analytical methods for such diverse samples as air and human tissue have been developed and are yielding i m portant information. The fate and persistence of pesticides constitutes another complex problem. It includes consideration of environmental and biological effects upon pesticides, how they move in rivers, and how they are translocated from one environmental medium to another. Finally, there is the question of damage control. C a n we reduce the introduction of pesticides into air and water? If not, can we effectively remove these poisons from the parts we consume? These are the considerations that prevailed in arranging this symposium. A l l were represented i n the various presentations. The extent of knowledge is not uniform in these fields, but the study of pesticides i n the environment is a relatively new endeavor. Progress has already been made, both i n delineating the problem and i n developing specific knowledge, and the work reported here is an account of that progress. A.
A.
Cincinnati, Ohio M a r c h 1966
viii Rosen and Kraybill; Organic Pesticides in the Environment Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1966.
ROSEN
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INTRODUCTION mong the many technological achievements of our era is the remarkable acceleration of food and fiber production and the control of pest-vectored diseases by the wide scale acceptance and use of chemical pesticides. Over the past 15 years, however, pest control with these remarkable agents has inadvertently contributed to a remarkable proliferation of these chemicals i n our environment, culminating i n the ever increasing problems of environmental pollution. The tempo of interest has been accelerated not only by concern for the quality of our environment but by the potential impact on public health and the survival of fish and wildlife. F o r the general public, interest i n environmental pollution was awakened by the publication of "Silent Spring." T h e appearance of the President's Science Advisory Committee Report on "Use of Pesticides" reflected this concern and the need for national programs and policies dealing with pest control and associated biomedical problems. However, neither of these publications really provided the initial thrust for exploratory research i n this area of toxicology and epidemiology. Over the past decade a gradual evolution in the fields of cellular biology cytogenetics and biochemistry-pharmacology has focused attention on the significance of sub-threshold toxic effects and the ability of a single toxicant or integration of several toxic stresses to induce responses and pathological changes at the cellular leveL Toxicological research a decade ago lacked the current conceptual approaches which provide a fuller appreciation of the mechanisms i n volved i n cellular biochemistry relating to cellular alteration and ultimately, disease states. Unfortunately, some of the current toxicological research on pesticides fails to comprehend the more imaginative approaches provided by subliminal pharmacology. Perhaps carcinogenesis research has done more to demonstrate the capacities of various stress agents, such as chemicals, viruses, bacterial toxins and/or metabolites, for altering cellular protein or deoxyribonucleic acid ( D N A ) . The separate action of a virus or the tandem effect of a virus and a chemical has been implicated i n subtle cellular changes which, over an extended span, fulminate into a clinically recognizable response or specific disease. Realizing that protracted cellular insults may occur from chronic exposure to pesticides, one certainly is not justified i n making sweeping conclusions on safety based on short term observations of single or ix Rosen and Kraybill; Organic Pesticides in the Environment Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1966.
Downloaded by 80.82.77.83 on May 28, 2018 | https://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: June 1, 1966 | doi: 10.1021/ba-1966-0060.pr001
multiple exposures to a chemical pesticide. In advancing our knowledge of cellular responses, the elucidation of the structure of D N A and appre ciation of the mechanisms of action of D N A with various exogenous agents have done much to open up wide vistas for biochemical, toxi cological, and epidemiological research. Concurrent with these biomethodological approaches to research has been the rapid advance of physicochemical methodology. These sophisticated techniques of detection have provided means for identify ing and measuring infinitely small amounts of pesticides and other en vironmental toxicants and their metabolites, which may be involved in micro insults to cellular response in various species, including man. The biomedical research session of this broad symposium presents some of the progress made by an expanding and comprehensive research program designed to study the biological impact of chemical pesticides on man and his environment. In a toxicological-epidemiological assess ment of the problem of environmental pollutants, pesticides are just one category in a wide spectrum of such agents. Obviously, the experimental designs and the methodological approaches used should provide a model for exploring the biological action of other contaminants. Washington, D . C. March 1966
H. F.
KRAYBILL
χ Rosen and Kraybill; Organic Pesticides in the Environment Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1966.
