LC50 Determination of the Pyrethroid Pesticides Esfenvalerate and Permethrin Kristina Estudillo Abstract Pyrethroids are a fairly new class of pesticides that are widely used in agriculture but whose environmental impacts are largely unknown Drenner et al 1993 For years the safety of chemical compounds has been determined with a series of water toxicity tests but pyrethroids are so hydrophobic that the pesticide will mostly be found in the sediment not the water making results of the water tests inaccurate for determining pyrethroids environmental risks Vlaming et al 2001 This study found the LC50 s which are the concentration that kills fifty percent of a population for esfenvalerate and permethrin both pyrethroids using the midge Chironomus tentans a test species recommended by the EPA in a series of sediment toxicity tests utilizing two sediments one from Glen Ellen CA and one from the San Pablo dam near Orinda CA of varying organic carbon content The values were found following EPA protocol for measuring pesticide toxicity in sediment which consists of exposing ten day old midges to known concentrations of pesticides in the sediment and evaluating survival after ten days EPA 2000 All concentrations were calculated using ToxCalc to interpret the results of the ten day tests The LC50 for permethrin was 1274 g kg using the Glen Ellen sediment and 756 g kg for the San Pablo sediment The LC50 for esfenvalerate was 177 g kg using the Glen Ellen sediment and 248 g kg for the San Pablo sediment These values are all much higher than their concentrations that were found in field samples from different locations in the Central Valley and therefore the decreased survival found in the field samples could not have been caused by either esfenvalerate or permethrin alone Weston et al 2002 Because permethrin s LC50 is much greater than esfenvalerate s it may be beneficial to the ecosystem if esfenvalerate use is replaced by permethrin assuming permethrin and esfenvalerate are used in the exact same quantities and are comparably effective Introduction In 1999 the Environmental Protection Agency EPA initiated a complete review of all pesticides The first class to be evaluated was the organophosphate pesticides because of their threat to human and all mammalian life EPA 2003a As a result of the evaluation the EPA eliminated organophosphate production in the United States and began a program to phase organophosphates out of use EPA 1999 In the absence of organophosphates synthetic pyrethroid pesticides which were derived from the chrysanthemum in the 1970 s are quickly increasing in popularity because of their high efficiency against insects greater stability in the environment and a greater safety to farm workers and wildlife Al Makkawy et al 1999 Pyrethroids are just as effective as chlorpyrifos the most commonly used organophosphate which puts them in a place to be a realistic and competitive replacement to organophosphates Tang et al 1996 The conversion from organophosphate to pyrethroid use will be beneficial to farm workers and the health of other mammals but it may also have dire consequences on other species such as salmon and trout important in commercial fishing as well as other unknown environmental impacts Edwards 1986 The effects of pyrethroid use are largely unknown because of the newness of the compounds Synthetic pyrethroid pesticides were derived in the early 1970 s but have not been widely used until recently due to the recent reduction in organophosphate use enacted by the EPA Drenner et al 1993 Although pyrethroids are generally safer for the environment than organophosphates it is more difficult to determine if they are causing problems in the environment than organophosphates because they are toxic at such small concentrations Glickman and Lech 1982 It is very difficult to establish pyrethroid regulations for this reason Pyrethoids have very low water solubility which means that when the compounds are exposed to the environment they will associate with the sediment not remain in the water column like the organophosphates Lee et al 2002 This presents a potential problem because for years EPA pesticide regulation has been based on the results of water quality and water toxicity tests EPA 2003b These tests have aided the EPA in determining whether a compound could be used for commercial and or residential purposes as well as set restrictions on allowable concentrations EPA 2003c Unfortunately pyrethroids are so hydrophobic that the pesticide will mostly be found in the sediment not the water making results of the water tests inaccurate for determining pyrethroids environmental risks An appropriate measure of environmental pyrethroid toxicity can be determined by conducting soil toxicity tests unfortunately there is very little information in the literature on sediment concentration that would be potentially toxic the few reported levels are in the high ppb to low ppm range 70 g kg to grass shrimp McKenney et al 1998 1 300 g kg to nematodes Chandler et al 1994 2 100 g kg to a chironomid Conrad et al 1999 2 800 3 400 to copepods Chandler et al 1994 The EPA has years of data from water tests and very little data from soil toxicity tests When registering a pesticide the producer needs to show that a compound presents no or very little danger to the environment and ecosystem Unfortunately the EPA had no suggestions or guidelines on which tests accurately assess the safety of a compound until the recently when the reregistration process included suggestions for further studies EPA 2003 This study will identify the LC50 s the concentration that kills 50 of a given population for both permethrin and esfenvalerate two of the most commonly used pyrethroids These values will be obtained by conducting several series of sediment toxicity tests with Chironomus tentans a midge as the test species using two clean test sediments of varying organic carbon content for both permethrin and esfenvalerate Identifying these values is a very important step towards understanding how dangerous pyrethroids are in both the short and long term They will help policy makers establish the proper regulations on the two compounds as well as help determine the need for future research EPA 2003c Methods Determining the LC50 s for permethrin and esfenvalerate will allow for a comparison with the concentrations of permethrin and esfenvalerate found in field soil samples so that it can be determined whether the
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