Units use to measure chemical in env.

PPM PARTS PER MILLION PPB parts per billion PPT parts per trillion One part per million is -1 min in 2 yaers 1 inc. in 16 miles PPB parts per billion - 1 inch in 16,000 miles - 1 second in 32 years PPT parts per trillion 1 inch in 16 million miles 1 second in 320 centuries

On the left side of the decimal point is bigger like 1 trillion is bigger than 1 billion On the right side of the decimal point 1 part per trillion is smaller than 1 part per billion

Toxicity is measured as clinical endpoints which include Mortality (death) Teratogenicity (ability to cause birth defects) Carcinogenicity (ability to cause cancer), and, Mutagenicity (ability to cause heritable change in the DNA)

The median lethal dose LD50 The amount of a chemical which produces death in 50 % of population of test animals

The median lethal concentration LC50 The concentration of a chemical in an environment (generally air or water) which produces death in 50% of an exposed population of test animals in a specied time frame

Primary routes of exposure to pesticide ORAL- mouth passes through gastrointestinal tract. pesticide is still outside of the body proper until it passes through epithelial cellular membranes. DERMAL - Exposure of the skin - Most common route - not serious unless there is a specic, rapid toxicological effect INHALATION - breathed into the lungs through the nose or mouth Not a concern until it crosses from the lung into the body

Terms Acute ~ single exposure of short duration (less than a day) toxic symptoms called = acute toxicity Chronic ~ repeated long-term contact (greater than half of its life time) toxic symptoms called = chronic sypmtoms Subchronic ~ repeated exposure over. toxic symptoms called = subchronic toxicity

For pesticides less is more when dealing with toxicity The less you need to cause a toxic efect the more toxic the substance is

Safe = low risk Signal words - e relative acute toxicity of a pesticide is reected on the label Caution lowest degree of relative toxicity

Relatively nontoxic Slightly toxic Warning intermediate degree of relative toxicity Moderately toxic (>50 but <500 mg/kg) Danger - highest degree of relative toxicity

Poison - not just anything you dont like Any pesticide with an LD50 of 50 mg/kg or less have the signal word DANGER plus the word POISON must display the skull and crossbones icon

every substance is a toxic