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Pesticides, Organic Contaminants, and Pathogens in Air
mobilization of pesticides. The frequency and severity of violent or extreme
weather events, indicators of global warming, continue through 2020. For
example, 29 storms were named in the Atlantic Ocean in 2020, breaking the
previous record set in 2005. Unusually warm Atlantic waters and a La Nina
event in the Pacifc Ocean contributed to the stormy season (Segarra, 2020).
Spread, sprayed, or applied in some other way, pesticides and other contaminants release to air inevitably occurs, resulting in airborne exposures to
applicators and others in the vicinity of the application.
The point is that pesticides and toxics get into the air. The effects of pesticides on people, domestic animals, wild animals (including microorganisms
and fsh), and ecosystems are the result of exposures—amounts and duration. Regulations, usage practices, care, and safety all play roles in minimizing risk (exposure × hazard). Underlying all of this is the continuing need for
research, training, and communication.
Taken one by one, these mobilization processes can be studied, understood, and modelled. But in the real world, all of these processes can occur
simultaneously making it diffcult to know how much exposure is occurring, and thus the magnitude of harmful effects. It is this dynamic that leads
to approximations, worst case estimates, and attempts to limit or control
exposures to airborne toxics, pesticides, and other contaminants that justify
attention.
At the time of this writing, the world is riveted by a pandemic caused by
the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. The same factors leading to human exposures to pesticides (physicochemical properties, environmental conditions,
and human activities) exist for pathogenic viruses, fungi, and bacteria, as
well as other chemicals, manufactured and naturally occurring—fuels,
industrial chemicals, solvents, combustion products, freons and other fuorocarbons, toxic wastes, PCBs, solvents, and drugs, alkaloids, and detergents.
Thus, much of what we have learned from pesticides helps in understanding
and mitigating effects of COVID-19 and other air contaminants. The tools of
the environmental toxicologists’ trade—analytical methods, models, effects
evaluation in humans and animals, forensics, epidemiology, and ecology—
pertain broadly to addressing these other contaminants in air.
The world has experienced steady exponential growth in its population
since 1940, the year of author JNS’s birth (Figure 13.1). The population of earth
in 2020 was 7,800,000,000 people. The total land mass (including areas covered by ice) is about 149,000,000 km 2 . On average, this means that each person
has 0.019 km 2 to acquire the needed resources for their life. In 1940, it was
0.0645 km 2 /person. The amount of area per person is shrinking as the population rises. Will population growth continue on the same exponential path,
will it level off to some steady state, or will population decline? These questions are yet to be answered and depend on how we address sustainability in
the future—at our current pace of population growth and our current food,
energy, and water practices, the planet will not have suffcient resources to
meet these demands much longer.
Pesticides, Organic Contaminants, and Pathogens in Air
mobilization of pesticides. The frequency and severity of violent or extreme
weather events, indicators of global warming, continue through 2020. For
example, 29 storms were named in the Atlantic Ocean in 2020, breaking the
previous record set in 2005. Unusually warm Atlantic waters and a La Nina
event in the Pacifc Ocean contributed to the stormy season (Segarra, 2020).
Spread, sprayed, or applied in some other way, pesticides and other contaminants release to air inevitably occurs, resulting in airborne exposures to
applicators and others in the vicinity of the application.
The point is that pesticides and toxics get into the air. The effects of pesticides on people, domestic animals, wild animals (including microorganisms
and fsh), and ecosystems are the result of exposures—amounts and duration. Regulations, usage practices, care, and safety all play roles in minimizing risk (exposure × hazard). Underlying all of this is the continuing need for
research, training, and communication.
Taken one by one, these mobilization processes can be studied, understood, and modelled. But in the real world, all of these processes can occur
simultaneously making it diffcult to know how much exposure is occurring, and thus the magnitude of harmful effects. It is this dynamic that leads
to approximations, worst case estimates, and attempts to limit or control
exposures to airborne toxics, pesticides, and other contaminants that justify
attention.
At the time of this writing, the world is riveted by a pandemic caused by
the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. The same factors leading to human exposures to pesticides (physicochemical properties, environmental conditions,
and human activities) exist for pathogenic viruses, fungi, and bacteria, as
well as other chemicals, manufactured and naturally occurring—fuels,
industrial chemicals, solvents, combustion products, freons and other fuorocarbons, toxic wastes, PCBs, solvents, and drugs, alkaloids, and detergents.
Thus, much of what we have learned from pesticides helps in understanding
and mitigating effects of COVID-19 and other air contaminants. The tools of
the environmental toxicologists’ trade—analytical methods, models, effects
evaluation in humans and animals, forensics, epidemiology, and ecology—
pertain broadly to addressing these other contaminants in air.
The world has experienced steady exponential growth in its population
since 1940, the year of author JNS’s birth (Figure 13.1). The population of earth
in 2020 was 7,800,000,000 people. The total land mass (including areas covered by ice) is about 149,000,000 km 2 . On average, this means that each person
has 0.019 km 2 to acquire the needed resources for their life. In 1940, it was
0.0645 km 2 /person. The amount of area per person is shrinking as the population rises. Will population growth continue on the same exponential path,
will it level off to some steady state, or will population decline? These questions are yet to be answered and depend on how we address sustainability in
the future—at our current pace of population growth and our current food,
energy, and water practices, the planet will not have suffcient resources to
meet these demands much longer.