Health & Disease, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water
Contaminaton & Loss — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor August 13,
2008 I promised to follow up on our recent Which Came First –
Pests, or Pesticides? story with some info on how these nasties
can affect your environment, and you. We’ll do so, specifically,
by looking at the meaning of the term bio-magnification. How
many have heard the term? Hmm…, a few raised hands. How many of
you can explain its meaning to others in the class? Okay, not so
many. It’s actually a pretty simple concept to understand, and
it’s a little frightening to realise the implications once you
have. Clear Lake, California A classic story of bio-
magnification was observed at Clear Lake in California, and well
illustrates the deadly process. In 1949 they sprayed DDD, a form
of DDT, to kill a non-biting gnat. They met with success,
initially…. Two years later the gnat was back, so they repeated
the treatment (readers of our previous pesticide story will
understand the term ‘pesticide trea