Book Reviews - Pesticides News No.38

Arctic pollution  
The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), has produced its first assessment report Arctic Pollution Issues that represents the collaborative effort of over 400 scientists and administrators. AMAP, established in 1991 under the international Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy, has the responsibility to monitor and assess the effects of selected man-made pollutants, including persistent organic pollutants (POPs)—a major threat to the Arctic environment.  
    Many POPs are pesticides and those of concern to AMAP are—DDT, toxaphene, chlordane, HCH/lindane, dieldrin, mirex and organotins. 
    Modelling of pathways and transport of DDT shows that it will be with us for many decades to come. Even after a complete global ban, only about 10% of the atmospheric load, 30% of the soil load, and only 1% of the ocean load will disappear each decade.
    In general, only part of the global burden of pesticide residues such as DDT will reach the Arctic, but this fraction can still create problems. Organochlorine contaminants can concentrate in the fat of Arctic animals and bio-magnify in the food web. This can lead to high levels in top-predators, including people, the report concludes.
    Cold temperatures in the Arctic also seem to create a sink for certain POPs sometimes resulting in environmental levels above that found in source regions. This phenomenon is referred to as the ‘cold-condensation effect’.
    The report highlights how little is known about contamination of the Arctic, and suggests scientists further develop ways of determining the magnitude and relative contribution of man-made pollution.

Arctic Pollution Issues: A State of the Arctic Environment Report, AMAP, PO Box 8100 Dep, N-0032 Oslo, Norway, http://www.grida.no/amap, 1997, 118pp.

WWF report on Great Lakes  
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in the US has provided an up-beat assessment of efforts to reduce reliance on and risk from chemical pesticides in the Great Lakes basin.
    WWF says that some measures have already been achieved. Farmers in the Great Lakes basin have demonstrated that they can reduce reliance on pesticides whilst maintaining or increasing their yields and profits.
    Government action has also spurred innovation in pest management and modest funds have supported demonstrations of new approaches and dissemination of their results.
    Despite this WWF still considers opportunities to reduce reliance and risk abounds.
    For farmers, it shows where researchers have organised reduction efforts, and provides contact information. For government policy makers, it suggests ways of modifying existing programmes and identifies model programmes that might be more widely adopted. For environmentalists, it presents policy tools that deserve wider adoption.

Hoppin, Polly, Richard Liroff and Michelle Miller, Reducing Reliance on Pesticides in Great Lakes Basin Agriculture, World Wildlife Fund Washington DC, US, 1997, 113pp.

IIBC progress report  
Happy birthday International Institute of Biological Control (IIBC)! In 1996 IIBC celebrated its 50th anniversary. Based in the UK, IIBC has over these years developed a number of stations around the world that are devoted to the biological control of pests and weeds.  
    The year was a milestone for IIBC in the development of biological pesticides for pest problems in developing countries. The LUBILOSA project, a multi-institutional project to develop a biological pesticide for grasshoppers and locusts in Africa, entered its third phase and moved beyond a purely research activity, into a programme to make a product commercially available for widespread use by 1999. In field trials in Niger, the mycoinsecticide proved to be more effective than conventional chemicals in suppressing grasshopper populations.
    The development in IIBC reflects a more general global trend—the expansion of interest in biological control from the public into the private sector. As integrated pest management (IPM) becomes more widely implemented, an activity in which IIBC is playing an important role, demand for IPM-compatible biological control products is increasing.
    During 1996 a number of organisations, including IIBC, came together to form a new group for the biological control industry— the International Biocontrol Manufacturers Association.

International Institute of Biological Control, Annual Report 1996, Silwood Park, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, Berks, SL5 7TA, UK, 1997, 132pp.

Integrated vegetation management  
US integrated pest management specialists at the Bio-Integral Resource Center  (BIRC) have produced guidelines for the application of integrated vegetation management (IVM) in the day to day work of roadside management. Although written for the Washington State Department of Transportation, the report is applicable internationally.  
    IVM uses the most appropriate vegetation management methods and strategy, along with a monitoring and evaluation system, to achieve roadside maintenance programme goals and objectives in an environmentally and economically sound manner.
    The IVM approach focuses on using long term solutions to establish stable, low-maintenance roadside plant communities compatible with highway safety, maintenance objectives, neighbour’s concerns, environmental quality—while at the same time deterring the invasion of undesirable plants.
    The report says the most significant aspect of an IVM programme to maintenance employees is the requirement of providing documented observations. The development and habitual use of record keeping that is convenient and easily referenced by maintenance personnel is critical  to the long term success of an IVM approach.

Daar, Sheila and Shawn King, Integrated Vegetation Management for Roadsides, BIRC, PO Box 7414, Berkely CA 9470, US, Fax +1 510 524 1758, July 1997, 84pp.

Brighton crops conference  
Assessing the impact of genetically modified organisms figured in many papers at this year’s Brighton Crop Protection Conference. According to Dr Askew of the UK’s Central Science Laboratory, there is a need to assess the impact of transgenic crops at the farm and industry level. A wide range of new traits have or are being introduced, and these will need to be assessed one by one. He concludes that some issues relating to genetically modified plants remain unresolved, particularly at the business and international levels.  
    Researchers at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) have looked at the likelihood of herbicide tolerance in rape crops being transferred to adjacent crops. NIAB recommend: “it may be prudent to advise farmers to avoid allowing drifts of broad spectrum herbicides into field margins, since they may allow volunteer herbicide tolerant and other GM rape to establish which can then provide sources of contaminant seed and pollen for subsequent rape crops.”
    Ranking pesticides according to their environmental impact was another theme covered at the Conference. Increasingly, governments are considering the use of models that rank pesticides.
    Researchers at the Rural Resource Management Department of the Scottish Agricultural College conclude that such models attempt to fill an information gap at both the farm and policy levels. Their paper introduced pesticide ranking indices and addressed the issue of pesticide taxes and the use of ranking indices in their design.
    Dr Fuller of the British Trust for Ornithology reinforced the notion to delegates that bird populations are generally bigger on organic farms than on conventional farms, and that there are ‘whole farm’ benefits to birds from organic farming.

See Current Research Monitor for a list of articles presented at the conference with special reference to health and/or environmental issues.  
The 1997 Brighton Crop Protection Conference— Weeds, Vols. 1-3, BCPC Sales, Bear Farm, Binfield, Bracknell, Berks, RG42 5QE, UK, Fax +44 (0)118 934 1998, 1,202pp.

PAN International meeting  
In May 1997, 100 people from over 40 countries met at the Fourth PAN International meeting in Cuba to challenge the view that pesticides are an essential part of agricultural production (see PN36 pp12-13). The proceedings of the meeting are now available.
    The PAN conference marked 15 years of PAN activities, involving over 400 groups, including the Pesticides Trust [now PAN UK], in over 60 countries.  The first international meeting since 1989 provided the opportunity for technical, cultural, and intellectual exchanges, and enabled participants to develop strategies on key issues relating to pesticide problems and sustainable agriculture.

Proceedings, Fourth PAN International Meeting, Feeding the World Without Poisons: Supporting Healthy Agriculture, Santa Clara, Cuba, 17-21 May, 1997, PAN North America, 116 New Montgomery, #810, San Francisco, CA 94105, Fax +1 415 541 9253, 10 October 1997, 51pp.

Farming Swedish style  
The Swedish Experience highlights Sweden’s ever demanding aims to move towards a sustainable system of agriculture. This is not a minority interest, the report proclaims, it is accepted by the vast majority of Swedish farmers, understood by the country’s consumers and backed by strict regulations.  
    In the short term, the concept of Eco Auditing is being adopted as a means of helping individual farmers to obtain a clear view of the environmental state of their farms. An important aspect of this involves pesticides use.
    On average, Swedish farmers now use only 1/4 of the amount of pesticide used by their British or German colleagues, and less than half of that used by the Danes.

The Swedish Experience: Balancing advanced environmental farming practices with economic viability, Food From Sweden,  Stockholm, Sweden, 1997, 24pp.

Company reports  
Agrow’s Top Twenty Five shows that the leading companies in 1996 had on average increased their sales values by 3.5% over 1995. Novartis is the largest company with 15% of the world market. The sales, products, R&D, biotech  and joint ventures and strategies are listed in detail for each of the 25 companies.
    The two volumes on International Harmonisation are more interesting than might at first appear, being a comprehensive round up of international initiatives from data protection to registration across Western and Eastern Europe and worldwide, and from risk management to labelling, packaging, transport and disposal of obsolete stocks.

Copping, L., Agrow’s Top Twenty Five, PJB Publications, 1997, £295, 283pp; Dewar, A., International Harmonisation (Vol. I: From Discovery to Regulation, 131pp and  Vol. II: From Manufacture to Disposal 145pp), PJB Publications, Richmond, Surrey TW10 6UA, UK, Fax +44 181 948 6866, 1997, £600.

New pesticide manual  
The eleventh edition of the world compendium of pesticides, The Pesticide Manual, is available, in a revised and updated form.
    For each active ingredient profiles include—physical chemistry details, mode of action, biochemistry, commercialisation information, principal uses, mammalian toxicology, eco-toxicity data and environmental fate information.

Tomlin, C., The Pesticide Manual, 11th Edition, British Crop Protection Council, Publications Sales, Bear Farm, Binfield, Bracknell, RG42 5QE, UK, Fax +44 (0)118 934 1998, 1997, £135 in the European Union, £145 (US $240) elsewhere, 1,606pp.

US directory  
This guide lists pesticide producers, regulators, researchers and associates in the US. It includes basic manufacturers and formulators, district/regional offices and other relevant information. Other sections include universities, extension services, the US Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, national organisations, the US Forest Service, and Poison Control Centers.

The 1996-1997 Pesticide Directory, Thompson Publications, PO Box 9335, Frenso, CA, US, 1997, US $49.95, 161pp.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 38, December 1997, pages 22-23]