Monitoring wildlife for pesticide content

Abstract

In May 1963, the President's Science Advisory Committee issued a report entitled Use of Pesticides . 17 the President already had requested the responsible federal agencies to implement the recommendations in the report. One of these recommendations was to provide for the development and coordination of a pesticide-monitoring program conducted on a continuing basis, by federal agencies to obtain timely systematic data on pesticide residues in the environment. Many people re engaged in research to learn the quantities of pesticide that may be hazardous. Yet there is concern that hazardous quantities may accumulate before the difficult task of evaluation can be completed. The President's report on environmental pollution 12 expresses the view that the soils and waters of the world cannot indefinitely provide a vast dumping ground to absorb and render harmless all human wastes. Chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides are only one of these kinds of pollutants, yet they are particularly important because they persist long in the environment and accumulate in the tissues of animals.