Author
 |
Seiber, James |
|
Submitted to: Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 7/13/2005 Publication Date: 9/14/2005 Citation: Seiber, James N. 2005. Environmental Transport and Fate - Minimizing Adverse Effects from the Use of Agrochemical Pest Control Agents. Proceedings of International Symposium on Pesticide and Environmental Safety. p. 7-8. Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: Predicting how chemicals behave in the environment is a major task facing science today. Society calls for premarket or preuse tests which can lead to prediction, with a high degree of certainty, that the chemical in question will not pose adverse risks to man or the environment. Such processes as food chain accumulation, contamination of surface or groundwaters, undue persistence in soil or water, and movement to sensitive environments through the air are of particular concern. Fulfilling these expectations for premarket testing is a large order; it requires information on physicochemical properties, the environmental compartments available to the chemical in its zone of use, processes which can transfer the chemical between compartments and transform the chemical within each compartment, and those properties which influence both the course and rate of such processes. Given the complexity and heterogeneity of the environment, it is challenging to provide quantitative prediction. Yet science is providing needed information on a continuing basis, through such federal organizations as USDA-ARS, universities, and industry. |
