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Pyrethroids, the active ingredient used in most
home and garden insecticides, have been on the market for years.
Although the compounds are considered potentially less harmful to
humans than other insecticides, surprisingly little information is
available about their long-term impact on the environment, according
to Donald Weston, Ph.D., an adjunct professor of ecotoxicology at the
University of California, Berkeley.
The finding, by Weston and others, was published
online Oct. 19 by the American Chemical Society's journal,
Environmental Science & Technology. A print version of the article
is scheduled to appear in the journal's Dec. 1 issue.
Nearly all of the sediment samples Weston and his
colleagues gathered from streams bordering a Roseville, Calif.,
neighborhood (a suburb of Sacramento) contained enough pyrethroids to
eradicate a small bottom-dwelling crustacean called Hyalella azteca.
"These results indicate that monitoring for
pyrethroids in urban and suburban streams is overdue, and the public,
regulators, and the scientific community should give greater
consideration to the potential effects of residential use of
pyrethroids on aquatic systems," Weston and his colleagues conclude. |
