Pesticides have played a significant role in increasing food production, and in view of growing worldwide food demand we can expect the use of these chemicals to increase. However, some of them have found their way into the biosphere and have been classi­ fied as persistent toxic chemicals. This has resulted in serious concern about environmental contamination. Since we are going to continue using chemicals, we should learn more about such aspects as their transport in the environment, the relationship of their physical-chemical properties to transport, their persistence in the biosphere, their partitioning in the biota, and toxicological and epidemiological forecasting based on physical-chemical properties. Environmental chemodynamics is the name given to a subject which deals with some of the above topics, utilizing the principles of such disciplines as chemistry, physics, systems analysis, modelling, engineering, and medical and biological sciences. To ensure the safety of the environment, we must know more about the chemodynamical behavior of pesticides and related chemi­ cals. The purpose of the symposium "Environmental Dynamics of Pes­ ticides" was to explore the concept of chemodynamics as applied to pesticides and thus may help in developing the emerging field of environmental chemodynamics. The symposium was held during the l37th National American Chemical Society Meeting at Los Angeles, California, during April, 1974. The three sessions in the sym­ posium were chai'red by Drs. V.H. Freed, D.G. Crosby, and R. Haque.

Inhalt

Environmental Dynamics of Pesticides: An Overview.- Chemicals in the Air: The Atmospheric System and Dispersal of Chemicals.- Determination of Pesticides and Their Transformation Products in Air.- Dynamic Aspects of Pesticide Photodecomposition.- Vaporization of Chemicals.- Modeling of Atmospheric Behavior: A Submodel of the Dynamics of Pesticides.- Role of Adsorption in Studying the Dynamics of Pesticides in a Soil Environment.- The Interpretation of Soil Leaching Experiments.- Principles of Pesticide Degradation in Soil.- Modeling of Pesticides in the Aqueous Environment.- Accumulation of Chemicals in the Hydrosphere.- Estimation of Soil Parathion Residues in the San Joaquin Valley, California--A Simulation Study.- Partitioning and Uptake of Pesticides in Biological Systems.- International Dynamics of Pesticide Poisoning.- Detoxication of Pesticides by Biota.- Nonenzymic Effects of Pesticides on Membranes.- Physiological Effects of Chlorinated Hydrocarbons on Avian Species.- Synthesis of the Symposium: Environmental Dynamics of Pesticides.- List of Contributors.