The second edition of Dennis Averys 1995 seminal work, Saving the Planet Through Pesticides and Plastics provides the flip side to environmentalist cries of spiraling cancer rates, rising global temperatures and decreasing rainforest acreage. Thoroughly updated and re-written with new information and data, Averys controversial book shows how agricultural technology can save the planet for both people and wildlife.

Many of the pesticides applied to food crops in this country are present in foods and may pose risks to human health. Current regulations are intended to protect the health of the general population by controlling pesticide use. This book explores whether the present regulatory approaches adequately protect infants and children, who may differ from adults in susceptibility and in dietary exposures to pesticide residues. The committee focuses on four major areas: Susceptibility: Are children more susceptible or less susceptible than adults to the effects of dietary exposure to pesticides? Exposure: What foods do infants and children eat, and which pesticides and how much of them are present in those foods? Is the current information on consumption and residues adequate to estimate exposure? Toxicity: Are toxicity tests in laboratory animals adequate to predict toxicity in human infants and children? Do the extent and type of toxicity of some chemicals vary by species and by age? Assessing risk: How is dietary exposure to pesticide residues associated with response? How can laboratory data on lifetime exposures of animals be used to derive meaningful estimates of risk to children? Does risk accumulate more rapidly during the early years of life? This book will be of interest to policymakers, administrators of research in the public and private sectors, toxicologists, pediatricians and other health professionals, and the pesticide industry.

The impetus for this book came from numerous requests by public and private agencies and citizens for information regarding the human health effects of pes ticide exposures. We have tried to compile a relatively complete, concise sum mary of the acute and chronic health effects and the toxicology of pesticides in a format that provides quick and easy access. This book was written to address the needs of the following groups: medical and public health professionals, tox icologists, environmentalists, industrial hygienists, regulators, producers and users of pesticides, public interest advocates, and the legal profession. Acknowledgments We are indebted to Mr. Christopher J. Wiant, Chief of the Environmental Chemistry Section of the Illinois Department of Public Health. The financial support provided by his office was essential in producing this book. We are also indebted to Dr. Charles Benbrook, former staff member, and Representative George E. Brown, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Depart ment Operations, Research and Foreign Agriculture of the Committee on Agri culture, United States House of Representatives, for their guidance in obtain ing pesticide toxicity data. In the Freedom of Information Office, Office of Pesticide Programs of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the patience and assistance of Therese Murtagh and Virginia Salzman in obtaining documents are appreciated. Of the numerous individuals who participated in the production of this book, the following merit special recognition for the quality of their research, editing, and critical skills: Mark Loafman, Sue Ramirez, Steve Smith, Sally Burns, and Denise Steurer.

This volume of the IARC Monographs provides evaluations of the carcinogenicity of some organophosphate insecticides and herbicides, including diazinon, glyphosate, malathion, parathion, and tetrachlorvinphos. Diazinon acts on a wide range of insects on crops, gardens, livestock, and pets, but most uses have been restricted in the USA, Canada, and the European Union since the 1980s. Glyphosate is the most heavily used agricultural and residential herbicide in the world, and has been detected in soil, air, surface water, and groundwater, as well as in food. Malathion is one of the oldest and most widely used organophosphate insecticides, and has a broad spectrum of applications in agriculture and public health, notably mosquito control. The insecticide parathion has been largely banned or restricted throughout the world due to toxicity to wildlife and humans. Tetrachlorvinphos is banned in the European Union, but continues to be used in the USA and elsewhere as an insecticide on animals, including in pet flea collars. The IARC Monographs Working Group reviewed epidemiological evidence, animal bioassays, and mechanistic and other relevant data to reach conclusions as to the carcinogenic hazard to humans of these agents.

The essential, cornerstone book of modern environmentalism is now offered in a handsome 40th anniversary edition which features a new Introduction by activist Terry Tempest Williams and a new Afterword by Carson biographer Linda Lear.