Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
INTRODUCTION Man's primary concerns have always been the struggle for survival and improvement of his lot. As his numbers increased, he attained greater ability to manipulate his environment. In the process he sometimes inflicted damage on himself and on his surroundings. Advances have always entailed a degree of risk which society must weigh and either accept, or reject, as the price of material progress. A major step in civilization was the domes- tication of food plants. With the birth of organ- ized agriculture and the resultant concentration of crops and animals, the stage was set for out- breaks of pests. Until that time man had to search for food as did the pests. Afterward neither had to search: instead, pest control became necessary. The welfare of an increasing human population requires intensified agriculture. This in turn enables the pests to increase, which necessitates the use of pesticides with their concomitant hazards. It thus seems inevitable that, as the population increases, so do certain hazards.--President's Science Advisory Committee, Use of Pesticides, May 1963, p. 1 Most pesticide use involves release of chemicals into an ecosystem that includes living organisms and the non- living substances associated with them. In such use, the intention is to restrict the chemicals to the treated areas. However, in spite of this intention, pesticidal chemicals often enter untreated areas of the biosphere. Although much attention has been given to long-lived organochlorine insecticides, they are not the only persistent chemicals that cause concern. Inorganic pesticidal chemicals are also persistent: among these are chemicals containing lead, copper, arsenic, and mercury. Moreover, not all problem-causing organic chemicals in the environment are pesticides. Other organic compounds used or produced in
