Abstract
Use of Persistent Pesticides and Their Accumulation in the Environment. | Chemical pesticides have been used commonly and increasingly for the greater part of the twentieth century. Only in recent years, however, has great concern arisen over their adverse effects upon environmental quality and human health. Reports of residues of chlorinated hydrocarbons (2,2-bis-p-chloropheny1-1,1,1-trichloroethane (DDT) and its metabolites in particular) in birds, fish, mammals, and water and the suspected linkage between certain reproductive disorders in mice with the ingestion of a chlorinated phenoxy acetic acid (2,4,5-trichloro-phenoxy acetic acid) have effectively motivated public concern about the widespread use of these chemicals as pesticides (1, 2, 3, 7).