ABSTRACT
The use of pesticides in their various forms, in agriculture, public health programmes and everyday domestic life has become the subject of much debate in the domestic and international arenas in recent years. For the first two decades after the discovery of chemical pesticides in 1939, their use provoked little controversy. The success of D D T (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) in helping control malaria and other pest-transmitted diseases, and the effectiveness of various insecticides and herbicides in reducing crop losses, gave pesticides the aura of another technological breakthrough destined to improve human standards of living forever.
