ABSTRACT
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has established ambient water quality criteria for the protection of aquatic organisms for both short-term and long-term exposure to some pesticides. These are nonenforceable guidelines designed to provide a basis for state standards. Much of the evidence for endocrine system disruption caused by pesticides in the environment is based on the effects of DDT. Evidence of endocrine system disruption in the environment caused by herbicides and insecticides used in United States agriculture is lacking. Fish kills represent one of the most obvious indications of problems in an aquatic environment. A number of pesticide-caused fish kills occurred during the 1950’s and 1960’s, mostly as a result of the use of OCs. Monitoring programs that do not look for the full spectrum of breakdown products produced from parent compounds run the real risk of underestimating the extent of potential harm to the environment and human health.
