Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on The Risks of Malathion
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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 4 page paper discusses some of the risks associated with the use of the pesticide malathion. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVMalath.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
This paper looks at four factors (hazard identification, dose-response, exposure and risk) to determine if malathion presents a significant danger. Discussion Malathion is manufactured by Share Corporation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
and is only one of a great number of similar products they make. They issue a Material Safety Data Sheet that rates their products on three criteria: health, flammability and
reactivity (Material safety data sheet, 2004). The hazard rating scale goes from 0 to 4, with 0 meaning insignificant risk; 1 meaning slight risk; 2 meaning moderate risk; 3 meaning
high risk; and 4 meaning extreme risk (Material safety data sheet, 2004). Not surprisingly, since this evaluation comes from the company that makes malathion, it is given a 2 rating
in health and flammability; and a 0 rating in reactivity. Thus, according to the people who make it, malathion carries only a moderate risk at worst, and no risk at
best, depending on which of its properties is being tested. But outside agencies and organizations take exception to these findings and to the EPA handling of the substance as well.
In 2001, Jennifer Sass, Senior Scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C., wrote a closely reasoned letter to the EPA, detailing the NRDCs concerns about malathion, which
they believe to be a hazardous, carcinogenic substance that is poorly regulated. In making this hazard identification, Sass notes that malathion is an organophosphate insecticide, and that such substances are
"designed specifically to injure the nervous system, through inhibition of cholinesterase (Sass, 2001). She notes that malathion has been used on "raw agricultural products including edible grains, fruits, nuts, forage
crops, cotton, and tobacco" (Sass, 2001). Its also been used to control parasites, both in domestic animals and livestock; in this case its been sprayed "in and around livestock barns,
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