We read with interest the article "Developmental Effects of Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals in Wildlife and Humans," by Colborn et al. (EHP 101: 378-384). This paper reviews the important issue of potential long-term consequences resulting from exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals during early life. In this article, the authors primarily discuss agents that interfere with the functioning o...

Starch encapsulation has been proposed as a method for controlling the rate at which pesticides are released into the soil. Relatively ittle is known about what environmental f ctors influence controlled release. A series of laboratory studies were initiated to improve our understanding of how water potential, temperature, and soil microbial activity influence rate of release of starch-encapsul...

The article by Swan et al. (2003) suggested that alachlor exposure was linked to reduced sperm quality in fertile men; after publication of the article, Monsanto (St. Louis, MO) began a detailed examination of the issue because the findings were entirely unexpected and inconsistent with both our information and the extensive published literature on alachlor. Most surprisingly, alachlor mercaptu...

Water samples were collected from Midwestern streams in 1994-1995 and 1998 as part of a study to help determine if changes in herbicide use resulted in changes in herbicide concentrations since a previous reconnaissance study in 1989-1990. Sites were sampled during the first significant runoff period after the application of pre-emergent herbicides in 1989-1990, 1994-1995, and 1998. Samples wer...

Contamination of water often results from the heavy use of agricultural chemicals, and the disposal of aqueous pesticide waste is a concern. Anodic Fenton treatment (AFT) has been shown to be a successful remediation method for pesticides in solution, but the effect of soil on the degradation kinetics of pesticides using this method has not been determined. The purpose of this study was to stud...

Alachlor [2-chloro-N-(2,6-diethylphenyl)-N-(methoxymethyl]acetamide] is a chloroacetanilide herbicide and has been widely used as selective pre-emergent post-emergent to control weeds grass. Due its wide usage, direct application on the ground, high solubility in water, moderate persistence, alachlor metabolites have detected various environments. Therefore, there an increasing concern about en...

Controlled-release herbicide formulations have been shown to decrease the leaching potential of several herbicides under laboratory and Ðeld conditions. The utility and efficacy of these formulations may be improved by combining several herbicides and a fertilizer source in a single formulation. The objective of these studies was to develop granular alginate formulations that were composed of a...

BACKGROUND Alachlor is the active ingredient in pre-emergent herbicide formulations that have been used widely on corn, soybeans, and other crops. It has been found to cause nasal, stomach, and thyroid tumours in rodent feeding studies at levels that are much higher than likely human exposures. AIMS To evaluate mortality rates from 1968 to 1999 and cancer incidence rates from 1969 to 1999 for...

Understanding the effects of climate change on weed growth and herbicide activity is important for optimizing applications effective control in future. Therefore, this study examined how affects Amaranthus patulus efficacy soil foliar herbicides at different temperatures. Although values A. differed between temperature, increased with increasing time after treatments. Under conditions which tem...

Within-event variability in rainfall intensity may affect pesticide leaching rates in soil, but most laboratory studies of pesticide leaching use a rainfall simulator operating at constant rainfall intensity, or cover the soil with ponded water. This is especially true in experiments where macropores are present--macroporous soils present experimental complexities enough without the added compl...