Foreword, Senator Abraham Ribicoff
Basic Guide to Pesticides is a fitting tribute to the memory of Rachel Carson. It covers all that people need to know about some 700 pesticides and their contaminants. This book is important in dealing with environmental problems both in general and in individual cases.
Rachel Carson's gifts as both poet and scientist turned Silent Spring into an eloquent book. Because of her, we undertook landmark hearings in the U.S. Senate that aroused Congress and the nation to the dangers she described. Her purpose, she told me before she died, was to call attention to the ever-increasing contamination of our environment by various pollutants and the impact of this contamination on the balance of nature, global in scope and detrimental to all mankind.
This present book is a guide for humanity as a whole. Ultimately, if we fail to use chemicals properly, we will injure deeply all nature and mankind.
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Table of Contents
Chapter One: Plan and Sources
- Selection of Pesticide Materials Included
- Sources of Information on Pesticides
Chapter Two: How to Use This Guide
- The Charts
- Use of the Index of Names
- Explanation of Terms on the Charts
- Transformation Products, Contaminants, Components
- Classes of Pesticides
- Chief Pesticide Use and Status
- Statements in Quotation Marks
- Question Marks
- Persistence
- Toxicity
- Effects on Mammals
- Immediate Toxicity
- Immediate Toxicity Ratings
- Long-term Toxicity: Cumulative, Biomagnification, Carcinogen, Mutagen, Teratogen, Fetotoxin, Organ Damage, Neurotoxin, Delayed Toxicity, Immunotoxin, Viral Enhancer
- Adverse Effects on other Non-target Species
- Biocide
- Immediate Toxicity, Long-term Toxicity
- Mutation in Plants
- Physical Properties
- Water Solubility
- Oil Solubility
- Scales for Rating Solubility of Toxic Materials
- Volatility
- Fire Hazard
- Environmental Effects
- Varying Vulnerability to Pesticide Poisoning
Chapter Three: Index of Pesticide Names
- Cross-index of common, trade, chemical names and CAS numbers
Chapter Four: Charts of Pesticide Characteristics
Chapter Five: Chemical Classes of Pesticides
Chapter Six: References
- Commonly Used Sources
- References for Charts
- Essential Background References
Appendix One: Using Pesticides
Appendix Two: Alternatives to Pesticides; IPM
- Robert van den Bosch
- Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
- Appendix Three: The Meaning of Carcinogenicity Testing
- William Lijinsky
- Statement of Dr. William Lijinsky Before the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, United States Senate, June 6, 1989
- Appendix Four: Pesticides and Our Environment
- Charles R. Walker
- Reducing Potential Hazards of Pesticides to Fish, Wildlife, and Habitat
- Appendix Five: Environmental and Economic Impacts of Pesticide Use
- David Pimentel, H.Acquay, M.Biltonen, P.Rice, M.Silva, J.Nelson, V.Lipner, S.Giordano, A.Horowitz, and M.D'Amore
- An Assessment of the Environmental and Economic Impacts of Pesticide Use
- Appendix Six: U.S. Federal Regulation of Pesticides, 1910-1988
- Shirley A. Briggs
- Back to Library