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Book reviews - Pesticides News No.49
New PAN
database
On 7 September the Pesticides
Action Network (PAN) North America launched the PAN Pesticide Database. It
is the largest and most comprehensive collection of pesticide data in the
world, including information on about 5,100 pesticide active ingredients,
breakdown products and related chemicals. The database also contains
information on more than 100,000 formulated pesticide products registered
by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Department
of Pesticide Regulation (DPR). Where available, the database provides the
following information for each chemical:
- Basic information including uses and chemical classifications, related chemicals.
- Toxicity characteristics including the World Health Organisation (WHO) rating and the US National Toxicology Program (NTP) information, cancer ratings from US EPA, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the State of California, as well as other chronic toxicity information on reproductive and developmental toxicity, and suspected endocrine disruption.
- US Regulatory status, including federal and California registration. PAN North America hopes to extend this to include international regulatory status in the future.
- Aquatic ecotoxicity information, including acute toxicity ratings for major organism groups including amphibians, fish, zooplankton and phytoplankton. PAN hopes to include data on terrestrial plants and animals in the future.
The database can be found at http://www.pesticideinfo.com/
Susan
Kegley, Pesticide Action Network, North America Regional Centre, 49 Powell
Street, Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94102, US, Fax +1 415 981 1991, http://www.panna.org/
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Pesticides and
health risks
During recent decades there
has been a steady increase in the use of chemical pesticides in both
developed and developing countries. This has caused widespread concern
about their impact on human health and on the environment. This is
particularly the case in less developed countries, which may lack
appropriate resources to minimise risks and rectify
problems.
The purpose of this short book is to
provide a review of:
- Information on the scale of manufacture, import and use of chemical pesticides
- Examples of direct risks to human welfare in terms of acute poisonings caused by occupational exposure and pesticide residues in food
- Examples of problems with the storage of obsolete stokes of pesticides in developing countries.
The focus is on acute problems in developing countries,
particularly in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, but some information is
also provided about developed countries.
For a book that quotes
Pesticides News as often as it does, it is a little difficult for PAN UK
to give an unbiased opinion.
Jeremy Harris, Chemical Pesticide Markets,
Health Risks and Residues, CABI
Publishing, Wallingford, Oxon, OX10 8DE, UK, Fax +44 (0)1491 833 508,
2000, 54pp. Order
direct .
Promoting
difference
Encouraging Diversity presents
about 80 briefly described cases which illuminate the accumulated
experience in utilising and managing crop genetic diversity in farmers’
fields both in the South and the North. Their experiences illustrate the
conflict which exists between crop conservation and development, and
contributes to understanding of opportunities that are offered by new
approaches and activities in this field. There are frequent similarities
between problems in the South and North, and the book presents the
experiences and perspectives of farmers, genebanks, plant breeders, seed
programmes and non-governmental organisations involved in crop development
and conservation. The authors analyse the experiences in the context of
new approaches in local and global plant genetic resource (PGR) management
being tried by both the formal and informal sector.
The last part of the book suggests guidelines for future development in
PGR management. It discusses the implications of integrated and adaptive
management approaches in PGR management, and the need to rethink the
institutional organisation required to bring about changes which can help
farmers and professionals in PGR management to resist the pressures of a
range of global forces.
This book presents a diverse
and rich array of experiences and in effect proposes a synthesis of what
might be conflicting views of conservation and development.
Conny
Almekinders and Walter de Boef, Encouraging Diversity, The conservation
and development of plant genetic resources, Intermediate Technology
Publications Ltd, 103-105 Southampton Row, London, WC1B 4HH, UK, 2000, 362pp.
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direct .
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Biopesticide
developments
Biological pesticides based on
pathogenic micro-organisms specific to a target pest offer an
ecologically-sound and effective solution to pest problems. They pose less
threat to the environment and to human health than do chemical pesticides.
However, despite the enormous potential for biopesticides, their
development, commercialisation and use has been slow. The information
reported in this book is based on a survey of more than 100 biopesticide
research workers in developing countries. The results demonstrate that the
main difficulties and constraints facing researchers relate to a lack of
expertise in the crucial later stages of development. Biopesticide
research is receiving mostly low investment, mainly from the public
sector, and requires more multidisciplinary
expertise.
The report concludes that targeted
assistance on a multinational, multi-disciplinary basis is required in
developing countries in order to remove the constraints.
Jeremy
Harris and David Dent, Priorities in Biopesticide Research and Development
in Developing Countries, CABI
Publishing, Wallingford, Oxon, OX10 8DE, UK, Fax +44 (0)1491 833 508,
2000, 70pp. Order
direct .
Industry’s safe
use project
The Novartis Foundation for
Sustainable Development has sponsored this book which reports on the
industry funded research into the safe use of pesticides in a number of
developing countries. Its aim was to investigate how to reduce crop
losses, while minimising harmful side effects to human health and the
environment. India, Mexico and Zimbabwe were chosen as the three project
countries, as they are similar in economic development, but have widely
disparate socio-cultural environments and agricultural
practices.
Groups like PAN
UK are concerned that such industry projects are not subject to
independent evaluation, and that trade unions, non-governmental
organisations, and community representatives are not
involved.
Safe and Effective Use of Crop Protection Products
in Developing Countries, CABI
Publishing, Wallingford, OXON, OX10 8DE, UK, Fax +44 (0)1491 833508,
cabi@cabi.org, 2000, 163pp. Order
direct .
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Toxic
culture
An expanding array of hazardous
substances poses an increasing threat to public health. But what makes our
society a ‘toxic culture’ are the social arrangements that encourage and
excuse the deterioration of human health and the environment. Elements of
toxic culture include the production of hazardous wastes, economic blight,
substandard housing, chronic stress, exploitative working conditions, and
dangerous technologies.
Reflecting on a diversity of
voices and critical perspectives, the essays in this book range from
critiques of traditional thinking and practices, to strategies for
shifting public consciousness to create health
communities.
Connecting the essays are a
recognition of the political and cultural dynamics that influence public
health and a commitment to organise against the powerful interests that
perpetuate the toxic culture.
Richard Hofrichter, Reclaiming the
Environmental Debate: The Politics of Health in a Toxic Culture, MIT
Press, Fitzroy House, 11 Chenies Street, London, UK,
atwiselton@HUP-MITpress.co.uk, 2000, 356pp. Order
direct from Amazon.co.uk.