DDT Formulations 71 



Grade AA 



Perhaps you've noticed on your bottle of insect spray 

 the statement that it is a Grade AA inseaicide. You prob- 

 ably didn't give it another thought, resting content with a 

 feeling of security that anything marked AA must be tops. 

 Would you like to know a little more about the meaning of 

 these letters? Well, here goes! 



When you go into a store to buy a bottle of insecticide, 

 you can't tell by feeling, tasting, or smelling the contents of 

 the beautifully<olored containers which one is good or which 

 one is bad, or how much better one is than another. Of 

 course, this is true of most things you buy. But after you 

 buy something and try it out, you soon find out whether or 

 not you were a sucker for making the purchase. And if you 

 come to the conclusion that you didn't get your money's 

 worth, you certainly won't buy that particular brand of article 

 again. Manufacturers know this as well as consumers. They 

 know that to keep your business they must give honest value 

 and make no false claims. Perhaps this is the best type of 

 control for industry — control based only on the seller-pur- 

 chaser relationship, without Government interference. Any- 

 way, that's what lots of people believe, although lots of others 

 take the attitude that the public can't manage its own affairs 

 and has to have the Government aa as its guardian. For 

 further light on this interesting subject, read again the volu- 

 minous arguments, pro and con, over O.P.A. 



Without delving further into the philosophy of price 



and quality regulation, we will merely state that insecticide 



manufacturers felt, for a long time, that it would be a good 



idea for the industry to voluntarily agree on certain standards 



of performance for household insecticides of the space-spray 



