Doty, Watson Among Nine Scientists Urging Strict Controls on Pesticides

A nine-man government committee, including Paul M. Doty and James D. Watson, warned the public last Wednesday against the hazards of chemical pesticides, according to the New York Times. The pesticide study group was part of the President's Scientific Advisory Committee.

The scientists fully acknowledged the benefits of modern pesticides, but they noted that the present use of chemical insect killers was causing needless danger to public health. Sharply critical of federal pesticide controls, the 43-page report asked Congress to go far beyond the regulations it passed in 1954.

The sub-committee pointed out several inadequacies in the procedures for registering anti-bug compounds:

* At present the Food and Drug Administration checks for pesticide residues only in foodstuffs crossing state boundaries. The few states which carry out their own checks have shown that pesticides can be far more dangerous on a local level. For this reason the government must create a wider network for pesticide sampling.

* The scientific evidence on which tolerance levels are based is often scanty and uncertain.

* Tolerance levels have been set for chemicals which to date have not been shown to be "tolerable" in any amount in test animals.

* Some pesticides used in agriculture and government extermination programs are damaging to wildlife. The FDA has no control in this area, and the report recommends that the Secretary of the Interior should take charge of this problem.

* Many pesticides come into contact with human skin where they are readily absorbed (e.g. naphtha used for mothballing). The government has no effective control over this danger.

* The effects of small doses of pesticides over long periods of time are largely unknown, although large segments of the population are continually taking in pesticides either in food or through direct contact with "bug sprays."

* The deleterious effects of pesticides on reproduction and the abilities of pesticides to produce cancer and neurological malfunctions have been shown in experimental animals, but have not been studied extensively enough to create the proper controls.

* Cumulative effects of two or more pesticides must be studied.

The FDA has already begun a review of its registration procedures and President Kennedy has promised to submit some of the committee's proposals to Congress.

Formation of the committee was at least partially inspired by Rachael Carson's Silent Spring, which attacked the indiscriminate use of pesticides.