Document 83nXyDNK0m6qkMwzBbyzD4nd

NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL CIILMICALS ASSOCIATION THE MADISON BUILDING 1155 FIFTEENTH ST.. N.W. WASHINGTON. D C. 20005 202 2961505 K&CtiiVED MAR 12 1989 (x ^ L B. T. j/r.'o. ( -{rsl )-ul ^3/ The entire issue of conservation is one of major importance to all of us. Your known interest in this area and its attendant issues of air and water pollution are the main reasons why the NACA is sending you the enclosed compendium of facts. Since it is our intention to develop additional fact sheets in the months ahead, you may expect to receive others of a similar nature. The time, effort, and money annually spent in attempting to control environmental problems obviates the simple fact that no easy solution is possible. Thus, we must proceed with caution and not with emotion. Attacks on the use of qualified pesticides, such as DDT, in farm and household situations serve to distort the truth. A ban on the use of a pesticide having the time-tested ability of DDT would cripple the farmer's efficiency in producing marketable food for our expanding population, and stifle attempts to combat insects and pests in our homes and gardens. NACA's ecologist, Dr. Donald A. Spencer, concisely states the real issue: "The enemy is the pest, not the pesticide." Sincerely, JW/jaz Enclosure Jack Watts Director of Public Relations DSW201060 STLCOPCB4059124 DDT STORY IN BRIEF DDT's low human hazard, its residual effectiveness, low cost, and the fact that there are no alternative controls for some insect problems, translate into user benefits. '. DDT contributes to: 1) Improved health in man and domestic animals 2) Increased production of food 3) Protection of building structures and fabrics 4) Reduction of disease and parasites affecting wildlife 5) Maintenance of habitat cover for wildlife DDT is a low cost item, wholesaling at 17-18 cents a pound. Almost any alternative pesticide would bring a greater return to the manufacturer. In Wisconsin, the annual sales of DDT, at the basic manufacturer's level, amount to a total of $17,000, hardly the basis for any financial interest by the often accused chemical industry. . At least 60 percent of the total production of DDT from its very begin ning in the 1940's has been used in foreign public health programs. For example, in 1967, 82 million pounds were exported, chiefly for use in controlling malaria. . In 1964, the most recent year for which figures are available, only 24 percent of the total production of DDT was used in agriculture. Another 15 percent was used in this country in public health programs, to control structural insects such as termites, and to mothproof carpets, clothing, etc. The largest agricultural use of DDT is in the production of cotton, which used about three-quarters of the 24 percent of agriculture's DDT use. Tobacco took another 3.7 percent. Even four years ago, the use of DDT to produce food crops required only about 14 percent of the total DDT used in the United States. International public health programs still depend importantly on the use of DDT, where its long "persistent" action is a valuable characteristic. Has anyone bothered to inquire of the World Health Organization of the United Nations as to how seriously their programs would be impaired by an abrupt withdrawal of DDT? ' DDT is "persistent" in that the amounts applied to control insects lasts for a considerable period of time. DDT does degrade, however, first to the less toxic TDE and DDE metabolites, finally changing entirely to harmless compounds. All species of animals, insects, fish, amphibians, birds, and mammals that have been studied are able to degrade and excrete DDT residues they have acquired in their fat. This ability to rid themselves of residues necessitates constant exposure to sustain any observed level. DSW 201061 (over) BRIEFING PAPER--BP1/269 Compiled by National Agricultural Chemicals Assn. 1155 - 15th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005, February 1969. STLCOPCB4059125 / rr l rr Body residues resulti from a low level environr ntal contamination do no continue to increase lethal levels, but reach steady state where impu and excretion balance. Commonly, this fat-irnmobilized DDT residue is of no significant harm to its host. DDT in soil degrades at variable rates, depending on soil types and cli mates. Its half-life is as short as a few weeks or as long as one to three years. Bacteria and fungi which are normally found in soil, help hasten DDT's degradation rate. In laboratory tests, where unrealistically large doses of DDT are added to soil samples -- sometimes on a ratio as high as 400 pounds per acre -- these natural properties are overwhelmed and killed. With soil thus "purified," DDT residues can be found on a half-life basis for 10 years, 17 years, and even up to two decades. So, while lab tests can demonstrate an extended half-life for DDT, they have no practical application to the normal agricultural use of DDT, where bacteria and fungi continue to work with DDT. Similar tests can be conducted with common table salt -- with similar results. But, just as a diner does not drown his meal with salt, neither does the farmer inundate his fields with DDT. Five segments of the complex nationwide Federal-State pesticide monitoring program have now reported. Essentially, these state that DDT residue levels in the environments studied are not increasing in: 1) cultivated soils 2) lower Mississippi River silts 3) Great Lakes fish 4) human fat, since 1951 5) Food & Drug Administration's "Market Basket" food survey The President's Science Advisory Committee (May, 1963), recommended that "The accretion of residues in the environment be controlled by orderly reduction in the use of persistent pesticides." (p.20, item 5) The report continues, "as a first step, the various agencies of the Fed eral Government might restrict wide-scale use of persistent insecticides." Both of these recommendations are being complied with. First, the use of DDT on public lands and in Federally assisted projects ceased except when approved by the Federal Committee on Pest Control, when other means of control were not available. Second, the availability of alternate control methods and changes in use have tended to reduce the domestic use of DDT between the years 1958 and 1967 by 51 percent (based on USDA's Economic Research Service's disappear ance from inventory. Pesticide'Review, 1968). Third, further deletion or modification of agricultural use patterns are expected to be reflected in significant reductions. The purpose of this outline is to introduce some facts to the current issue concerning DDT -- facts which have been largely ignored by various groups that have called for the banning of DDT. DDT has been employed for man's benefit and should be retained as a servant of society. DSW 201062 *** STLCOPCB4059126 (^HE SIAMESE ARCHER FISH GETS its FOOP By SQUIRTING WATJ4 AT INSECTS SO ACCURATELY THAT IT CAN HIT A BUG MORE THAN 3 FEET AWAY' &tiE SEA LAMPREY CAUGHT .29 TIMES MORE. TROUT THAN FISHERMEN TOOK FROM THE GREAT LARES UNTIL 5CIEWCE CAME UP WITH A PESTlClPE THAT PIPNT POTHER. THE TROUT YET KILCEP 9B% of the LAMPREYS / _ _ *. __ . ______________________ ____ ________ __________________________ - TIME and NEWSWEEK, in developing their coho stories, give credit to chemicals for having controlled the lamprey eel. We believe the above cartoon picture story to over 3500 editors in October helped estab lish the fact that it was a pesticide chemical that did the job, and that the cartoon on the right to the same 3500 editors in November establishes the importance of pesticides to the fishing industry. NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL CHEMICALS ASSOCIATION NOVEMBER 196B TIME Magazine, September 27, 1963 copy righted edition, page 63, devotes one half page to an article entitled "Coho Madness". ** * * * NEWSWEEK Magazine, October 14, 1963 copyrighted edition, page 86, devotes al most the entire page to an article entitled "Coho a Go-Go". * -k THE C33SES) AROUND US,.A Of the ez afll/oh ACRES OF INLANP FISHING WATERS INTHEU.S., MICHIGAN POSSESSES MORE THAN ANY OTHER STATE 1 ' FRO>(/CE THE TREMEHEOUS NUMBERS OF FISH NEEPEPTO KEEP THE LARES ANP STREAMS &Stookep requires some o pifferent pesticide CHEMICALS.TWE5E ARE USED TO IMPROVE THE AQUATIC HABITAT, TO PERIODICALLY REMOVE TRASH FISH, ANP TO ' control p|^gAgE.-,,,,|,[|fflla^ - ^ !W ------- 0_ 1THlOCUT TUE ASS/S7AVCE OF fk THESE CHEMICALS, SPORTS FISHING IN MICHIGAN CwHICH ANNUALLY PUT5 OVER lOOMiU.'Ov r POLLARS INTO- THE POCKETS OF MICHIGANDERS) 'WOULb EE IN SEPOUS TROUBLE .'-AND IN OTHER STATES TOO- ' DSW 201063 STLCOPCB4059127