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Pesticides The word “pesticide” is generally used as a catch-all term for a variety of different insecticides, herbicides, rodenticides, fungicides, soil fumigants, and other chemical compounds that are used to eliminate undesirable organisms from a specific place. These materials are, by their very nature, highly toxic poisons.Pesticides have been known for centuries, but the first synthetic chlorinated pesticides were discovered in 1939 when Paul Müller, a Swiss chemist, accidentally found that a chemical he was experimenting with called dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane killed insects.1 The global success of this compound, whose name was soon shortened to DDT, prompted researchers to look into the potential of other chemicals to destroy pests, and the pesticide revolution was born. Today, pesticides are used around the world by consumers, industry, and agriculture. Between 5-6 billion pounds are manufactured globally each year.2 Twenty per cent of this total is used in the United States, or 5 lbs. for every man, woman, and child in the nation.3 An estimated 98% of American families use these chemicals at least once a year.4 Divided into 15 major chemical categories5, there are approximately 1,400 pesticide compounds that are used in various combinations in some 35,000 different formulas.6 In addition to these so-called “active” ingredients (a term which means they are involved in the actual pesticidal action of the formula), pesticides also contain ingredients known as “inerts.” These solvents, spreaders, adhesives, wetting agents, carriers, and fillers can comprise up to 99% of a product's formula. Roughly 2,300 various inert ingredients are used in pesticide formulas, and many of them are as toxic as the active ingredients themselves. Since 1977, the EPA has required that manufacturers provide proof of a pesticide’s safety before it can be sold. However, most pesticides in use prior to that year have not yet be subjected to this testing and are still being sold. In fact, of the 1,400 active pesticide ingredients in use, only 600 are registered. Of these 600, researchers have found that complete toxicological data exists for only 100 meaning that the potential health effects of exposure to the vast majority of pesticides available for use today remain largely unknown.
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