SCOPE 49 - Methods to Assess Adverse Effects of Pesticides on Non-target Organisms

Preface

This report is the result of the seventh project of SGOMSEC, the Scientific Group on Methodologies for the Safety Evaluation of Chemicals, which operates under the general sponsorship of the IPCS and SCOPE. The objective of SGOMSEC is to examine and review critically methods for the evaluation of the adverse predictive effects of industrial and environmental chemicals on human health and on non-human forms of life. This leads to recommendations for future research, and should also be useful to scientists advising policy makers.

SGOMSEC No. 7 addresses the problems which pesticides may pose to non-target organisms, humans, animals, plants, microorganisms, and to ecosystems. Pesticides consist of a large group of chemicals designed specifically to control pest organisms and to be deliberately released in the environment. Quantities used yearly are estimated now at 3 million tons, and are increasing steadily in industrialized as well as in developing countries. It is estimated that over 99 per cent of the amounts applied do not reach their targets, thereby producing actual and potential negative effects on human health, livestock, and ecosystems.

This book includes a number of contributed papers plus a joint report expressing the consensus reached after a workshop held on 37 October 1988 in Cské Budjovice, Czechoslovakia.

The topics covered include the assessment and control of exposure of human and non-human organisms to pesticides, acute toxicity in humans (mostly neurotoxicity and dermal toxicity), chronic toxicity in humans (mostly on reproduction and development), and damage to ecosystems.

Recommendations are made not only on research needs but also on ways and means of mitigating the problems due to chemical control of pests, in particular through the development of integrated pest management, applications of biotechnology, and improved communication with, and training of, users. The application of these recommendations to developing countries is emphasized.

Thanks are due to the authors of the contributed papers and to those who prepared the joint report: R. Albert, S. Baker, J. Doull, G. Butler, N. Nelson, D. Peakall, D. Pimentel, and, in particular, R. G. Tardiff, who also edited the volume.  

Special thanks are expressed to Vladimir Landa and his colleagues who organized the workshop in Cské Budjovice.

The help of agencies which contributed funding for this activityIPCS, SCOPE, the US EPA and the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the Commission of the European Communitiesis gratefully acknowledged.

This workshop was the last to be organized and attended by the founder of SGOMSEC, Professor Norton Nelson. Homage is given here to his scientific merits and human qualities.
 

Philippe Bourdeau	Bernard D. Goldstein
Coordinator, Health and	Vice-Chairman, Scientific
Ecotoxicology Cluster	Group on Methodologies for
SCOPE	the Safety Evaluation of
Chairman, Scientific Group	Chemicals
on Methodologies for the
Evaluation of Chemicals

 

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The electronic version of this publication has been prepared at the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, India.