letters - ACS Publications

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letters Gone with what wind?

DEARSIR: Parke C. Brinkley, in Viewpoint, (“Pesticides are important as antipollutants,” ES&T, May 1970, p. 369), states that the pollen of ragweed and goldenrod brings such suffering to hay fever victims that the pollen count is a figure of great concern during the hay fever season. Like a great many other people, Mr. Brinkley is misinformed by the popular myth that goldenrod is a serious cause of pollen allergies. It was demonstrated several decades ago that the goldenrods (solidago s p p . ) are insignificant factors in terms of the total amount of potentially allergenic pollen in the air. The pollen from this genus is larger and stickier than that of ragweed. Goldenrod is insect pollinated rather than wind pollinated. With the possible exception of a few species out of the dozens in existence, almost no goldenrod

pollen is aerially disseminated. It is said to appear very infrequently on the slides used to determine pollen counts. Goldenrod is guilty only by association, only because it often blooms at about the same time that ragweed po!len is shed into the wind. Statements such as that which Mr. Brinkley made have served to carry this popular myth on through the years. David J. Schimpf 416 W . Fairview St. Arlington Heights, I l l . 60005 Pesticide views draw more fire

DEARSIR: Parke C. Brinkley’s May 1970 Viewpoint article in ES&T (“Pesticides are important as antipollutants”) expresses a level of ecological naivete which is incredible in a responsible citizen, but fully understandable from the economic viewpoint of the National Agricultural Chemicals Associa-

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tion. From the ecological point of view, most of what Brinkley has said is sheer nonsense. Cockroaches, mice, rats, pest insects, algae, ragweed pollen, and cereal weevils are all classed as pollutants by Brinkley. To pollute means to befoul the natural state of the environment. Each of these “pests” is a member of a natural community. It is complete nonsense to claim that these creatures are pollutants, although they are certainly significant pests. We have had these symbionts with us for as long as man has been o n this earth. Using synthetic chemicals to decimate these populations does far more polluting than leaving these to complete their natural, though noxious, life cycle. Furthermore, a host of former, insignificant plant-eating insects has been “promoted” to major pest status by the use of the very chemicals that Brinkley so righteously sells the public. If one accepts Brinkley’s point of view, then any organism which befouls our concept of living (such as the human litterbug) forfeits his right to survive. By the same faulty logic, since pesticides (especially chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides and certain herbicides) pollute our desired wildlife, crops, and man himself, they should be eradicated. Both viewpoints suffer from the same logical fault of non sequitur. Just as species in the natural communities cannot befoul in ecological terms (although species can “befoul” if w e have the appropriate attitude), pesticides d o not have to be polluting agents. Chemicals become pollutants when ecologically dangerous chemicals are manufactured, and then misused by a misinformed public. Mr. Brinkley might d o better to insist that ecological knowledge be sold along with his chemicals rather than more chemicals.

James P. Ludwig Center f o r Environmental Studies Bemidji State College Bemidji, Minn. 56601

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DEARSIR: Mr. Brinkley’s implication that pesticides are the b e s t - o r even the to control what he easiest-method calls “pollutants” simply does not