Environmental librarians' pesticide pop quiz

[Sue.Darcey, Pesticide Report <sdarcey@erols.com>]

I'm curious to know how environmental librarians and other
providers of environmental information answer questions about
pesticides in our environment that may be posed by the general
public.  I'd like to know what resources they rely upon for
answers.  So here is a short pop quiz for information providers, 
particularly environmental librarians, based on questions that
have stumped me as a pesticide editor over the last 3 years.  In 
answering these types of questions, I usually have a deadline of 
three or four days.

Anybody who can answer even one of these questions, and can tell
me what source they used for the answer, gets a free 
six-month subscription to the newsletter I publish, "Pesticide
Report," which I will happily send to the library or address of 
your choice.

To make this more realistic, pretend that some poor, dumb reporter
without much chemistry background or training, who works for a 
small town newspaper, wandered into your library and asked you these
questions.  He/she has been given a one week deadline by their editor
to write a 500-word article about the issues involved in the 
question, so I'll give you one week from today (until Sept. 25)to
provide me with the answers (or just one answer to one of these 
questions). 

PESTICIDE POP QUIZ:

1.  The insect growth regulator methoprene (trade name, Altosid)
is used to control mosquitos in wetlands.  It has been suspected
by herpetologists studying the disappearance of frogs and salamanders
in North America, as causing frog limb malformations, because the
pesticide acts like retinoic acid (responsible for triggering limb
development)on animals in laboratory studies.  But in 1991, EPA
reviewed the chemical, including its effects on fish and amphibians,
and gave it the green light to be registered as a "reduced risk"
pesticide.  One of the studies EPA relied upon in its Reregistration
Eligibility Decision (RED) on methoprene was cited:

"Cliburn, J.W. (1973).  Effects of Altosid (Formerly ZR-515) on
Selected Non- Target Organisms (Fish and Amphibians) When Used for
Control of Aquatic Insects."  Unpublished study submitted by Zoecon
Corp., Palo Alto, Calif. to EPA on Jan. 22, 1976, #CDL:223689-L"

Where do I get this study?

2. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in "RoundUp," the most popular
home-use herbicide in America, has been rumored to cause skin rashes
and eye irritation in some users.  How many adverse effects reports
on glyphosate were sent to EPA by manufacturers and consumers in
1998 and 1999, and did the reports reflect these symptoms?

3.  In September and October of 1999, New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani
and the city's Office of Emergency Management ordered that all five
boroughs of New York City, population 7 million plus, be aerially
sprayed (by helicopter) with the adult mosquitocide malathion to
control mosquitos carrying the West Nile Fever virus.  Newspaper
accounts state that the city that season set up a consumer "hotline"
phone number, for New Yorkers to call with any questions they had
about the spraying, or the effects of the pesticides.  How many
people (roughly) called the hotline in 1999 and complained about
adverse effects they suffered from aerially-applied malathion?

4.  How many toxic tort cases involving human exposure to diazinon
have been filed in district courts by individuals against applicators
and manufacturers of diazinon in the last 10 years?  What was the
outcome of those cases (i.e., what percentage of parties settled,
how many of these cases went to trial, and in the cases that went
to trial, who won?).

5.  How many people were hospitalized or killed in California from
1990-1999 as a result of a misapplication of the fumigant methyl
bromide in a structural setting (warehouse, home, etc.)?

6. How frequently did the state of Minnesota investigate incidents
involving pesticide spray drift in 1996 and 1997?

7.  A federal interagency workgroup, including members from EPA
and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released a
"predecisional draft" report on the illness known as "Multiple
Chemical Sensitivity" on Aug. 31, 1998 in a Federal Register notice,
for public comment.  What percentage of the U.S. population did
this report say has suffered from MCS, and which public docket room
in the United States can I visit to review the public's comments
on it?  FOR EXTRA CREDIT:  When will that multiple chemical
sensitivity report become final, and if it is already final, can
I read it?

9.  How does EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic
Substances define "multiple chemical sensitivity"?  How does EPA's
Office of Air and Radiation define it?

10.  How many benign or malignant tumors in rats and mice does EPA
say a chemical has to induce, and at what doses, before that chemical
can be considered a human carcinogen?