Word: heptachlor
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...conventional pesticides cannot stop the invasion, the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington will consider permitting the states to use the banned poison heptachlor. It is extremely effective against grasshoppers, but researchers suspect it of causing cancer in animals. By law, the EPA can approve use of heptachlor only after public hearings, a process that usually takes more than 30 days...
...showing that the pesticide 2,4-D caused "increased tumor formation" in rats; as recently as April 1976 it approved what many experts believe to be unacceptably high tolerance levels of the chemical in food products. The agency was also blasted for dragging its feet on aldrin, dieldrin and heptachlor. An EPA review revealed as early as 1971 that there were serious deficiencies in the data that had been previously used to register the pesticides; new tests showed that the substances apparently caused tumors to form in laboratory animals. It was not until 1975, however, that aldrin and dieldrin were...
...success prompted the introduction after World War II of a host of similar chlorine derivatives, including chlordane, heptachlor, aldrin, dieldrin, toxaphene and endrin. Wartime research on nerve gases also led to the development of a whole family of phosphorus-based insecticides, such as parathion, malathion and dimethoate, which, unlike DDT and other chlorine-based compounds, tended to break down more quickly into innocuous substances in the soil...
...halted the manufacture and restricted the sale and use of two products that are highly effective against corn pests: aldrin and dieldrin, which had also been linked to cancer in laboratory animals. Last year, for the same reason, it placed severe restrictions on the sale and use of heptachlor and chlordane, effective termite killers. The EPA has also curtailed the use of Mirex, the pesticide that is most effective against the fire ant as well as harvester and Texas leaf-cutting varieties. Tests showed that the substance is potentially carcinogenic in rats and mice and toxic to such common crustaceans...
Meantime, home gardeners face the growing problem of what to do with unwanted stocks of hard pesticides-not only DDT but also DDD, dieldrin, aldrin, endrin, chlordane, heptachlor and others. Such long-lived chemicals could not be safely buried; they would sooner or later get into the water supply. Nor could they be incinerated; the dangerous fumes would carry a considerable distance. In fact, the most sensible solution, says...