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benefits from pesticides, the report offered the following recommendation: 
“Elimination of the use of persistent, toxic pesticides should be the goal.” 
Other recommendations were: an intensification of the F.D.A. review of 
residual tolerances, with attention directed first to heptachlor, methoxy- 
chlor, dieldrin, aldrin, chlordane, lindane, and parathion, “. . . because 
their tolerances were originally based on data which are in particular 
need of review;” a shift from the broad spectrum pesticides to selectively 
toxic chemicals; non-persistent chemicals, selective methods of application, 
and non-chemical methods. 
Further recommendations were: more research on long-term effects on 
wildlife; protest registration should be eliminated; fish and other wildlife 
should be included as useful vertebrates and invertebrates and protected 
under the Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act; and the operation 
budgets of federal pest programs should include money to evaluate and 
publish results of application programs and their effect. on organisms 
other than the targets. 
At this writing, one of the worst fish kills to date has been reported 
by the U. S. Public Health Service. Each spring since 1960, tens of mil- 
lions of fish have died in the lower Mississippi and its estuarine waters 
in the Gulf; the probable cause was given as the chlorinated hydrocarbons, 
endrin and dieldrin. Many fishermen have had to give up their businesses. 
Other species of animals have apparently been hit hard because of food 
chain poisoning. Health officials are wondering about the safety of the 
river water for drinking. It is to be hoped that this disaster, which may 
be a portent of things to come, will force a more objective attitude in the 
pro-pesticide camp. 
There have been some attempts.to improve the federal position in 
the matter of pesticides. The Federal Pest Control Review Board has 
been formed; Senate sub-committee hearings have been ably conducted 
on pesticides by Sen. Abraham Ribicoff; there has been more emphasis 
on research; and a number of good bills have been introduced. But this is 
just a beginning on the many-faceted problem. 
Much research must be done on other methods of pest control, in 
which there are big gaps in our knowledge. A new Biological Control of 
Insects Research Laboratory at Columbus, Mo., is being completed for the 
study of biological controls — the introduction of insect diseases, parasites 
and predators. Another promising method of control for several important 
species is male sterilization, which has been so successful with the screw 
worm. A Metabolism and Radiation Research Laboratory is being built 
at Fargo, N. Dak. Hormones, food and sex attractants, light traps, anti- 
metabolites and antibiotics are being studied, and there has been a pro- 
posal to develop genetically inferior insects. Varietal resistance to disease 
ag insects in plants holds much hope but takes many years to develop 
7) (8) (9). 
There is great interest in integrated biological - cultural - chemical 
control, with chemicals used in ways that are least destructive. Dr. Pickett, 
working in Nova Scotia orchards, used selective pesticides in minimum 
amounts and with special timing to cause the least loss to beneficial insects 
(8). In addition to the benefit of less poison, the cost was considerably 
lower, and the orchards remained highly productive. 
Two words, ecology and ecosystem, are going to be heard more and 
more from now on. Ecology is a science dealing with mutual relationships 
between organisms and their environment — a science just in its infancy. 
