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Managing Human and
Social Systems
Environmental Management Handbook,
Second Edition
Edited by
Brian D. Fath and Sven E. Jørgensen

Volume 1
Managing Global Resources and Universal Processes
Volume 2
Managing Biological and Ecological Systems
Volume 3
Managing Soils and Terrestrial Systems
Volume 4
Managing Water Resources and Hydrological Systems
Volume 5
Managing Air Quality and Energy Systems
Volume 6
Managing Human and Social Systems
Managing Human and
Social Systems
Second Edition

Edited by
Brian D. Fath and Sven E. Jørgensen
Assistant to Editor
Megan Cole
Cover photo: Znojmo, Czech Republic, B. Fath

Second edition published 2021


by CRC Press
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

and by CRC Press


2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

© 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

First edition published by CRC Press 2013

CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot
assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and publishers
have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to
copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material has not been
acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any future reprint.

Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or
utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written
permission from the publishers.

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Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. For works that are
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

ISBN: 978-1-138-34268-2 (hbk)


ISBN: 978-1-003-05351-4 (ebk)

Typeset in Minion
by codeMantra
Contents

Preface ....................................................................................................................... ix
Editors ....................................................................................................................... xi
Contributors ........................................................................................................... xiii

SECTION I APC: Anthropogenic Chemicals and Activities


1 Food: Pesticide Contamination ........................................................................ 3
Denis Hamilton
2 Human Health: Consumer Concerns to Pesticides .......................................... 9
George Ekström and Margareta Palmborg
3 Human Health: Endocrine Disruption ............................................................ 15
Evamarie Straube and Sebastian Straube
4 Human Health: Pesticides ................................................................................ 19
Kelsey Hart and David Pimentel
5 Nanoparticles .................................................................................................. 25
Alexandra Navrotsky
6 Pharmaceuticals: Treatment ........................................................................... 39
Diana Aga and Seungyun Baik

SECTION II COV: Comparative Overviews of


Important Topics for Environmental Management
7 Buildings: Climate Change ............................................................................. 55
Lisa Guan and Guangnan Chen
8 Economic Growth: Slower by Design, Not Disaster ....................................... 65
Peter A. Victor and Tim Jackson
9 Food–Energy–Water Nexus ............................................................................. 79
Nemi Vora

v
vi Contents

. . .........................

........................................................................................

.............................................................................................

. . ............................................................................................

...........................................................................

.............................................................

.................................................................................. 145

.. ..........................................................................

................................................................................

..........................................................................................

Section iii cSS: case Studies of environmental Management


......................................

...........................

..........................................

......................................................................................

Section iV DiA: Diagnostic tools: Monitoring, ecological


Modeling, ecological indicators, and ecological Services

........................................................

............................................................................
Contents vii

26 Solid Waste Management: Life Cycle Assessment ......................................... 281


Ni-Bin Chang, Ana Pires, and Graça Martinho
27 Sustainable Development: Ecological Footprint in Accounting ................... 301
Simone Bastianoni, Valentina Niccolucci, Elena Neri, Gemma Cranston,
Alessandro Galli, and Mathis Wackernagel
28 Environmental Legislation: Asia . .................................................................. 321
Wanpen Wirojanagud

SECTION V ELE: Focuses on the Use of Legislation


or Policy to Address Environmental Problems
29 Environmental Policy .................................................................................... 347
Sanford V. Berg
30 Environmental Policy: Innovations .............................................................. 359
Alka Sapat
31 Food Quality Protection Act .......................................................................... 371
Christina D. DiFonzo
32 Food: Cosmetic Standards ............................................................................. 373
David Pimentel and Kelsey Hart
33 Laws and Regulations: Food ......................................................................... 379
Ike Jeon
34 Laws and Regulations: Pesticides ................................................................. 383
Praful Suchak
35 Laws and Regulations: Rotterdam Convention ............................................ 389
Barbara Dinham
36 Laws and Regulations: Soil ........................................................................... 395
Ian Hannam and Ben Boer
37 LEED-EB: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for
Existing Buildings .......................................................................................... 401
Rusty T. Hodapp
38 LEED-NC: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for New
Construction .................................................................................................. 413
Stephen A. Roosa
39 Nanomaterials: Regulation and Risk Assessment ......................................... 421
Steffen Foss Hansen, Khara D. Grieger, and Anders Baun
viii Contents

SECTION VI ENT: Environmental Management


Using Environmental Technologies
40 Industrial Waste: Soil Pollution and Remediation ....................................... 439
W. Friesl-Hanl, M.H. Gerzabek, W.W. Wenzel, and W.E.H. Blum
41 Pest Management: Crop Diversity ................................................................ 445
Maria R. Finckh and Jan Henrik Schmidt
42 Pest Management: Intercropping ................................................................... 451
Maria R. Finckh
43 Precision Agriculture: Water and Nutrient Management ............................ 459
Robert J. Lascano, Timothy S. Goebel, and J.D. Booker

SECTION VII PRO: Basic Environmental Processes


44 Green Processes and Projects: Systems Analysis ......................................... 475
Abhishek Tiwary
45 Green Products: Production .......................................................................... 491
Puangrat Kajitvichyanukul, Jirapat Ananpattarachai, and Apichon Watcharenwong
Index ...................................................................................................................... 503
Preface

Given the current state of the world as compiled in the massive Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
Report, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively during the past 50 years than in
any other time in human history. These are unprecedented changes that need certain action. As a result,
it is imperative that we have a good scientific understanding of how these systems function and good
strategies on how to manage them.
In a very practical way, this multivolume Environmental Management Handbook provides a com-
prehensive reference to demonstrate the key processes and provisions for enhancing environmental
management. The experience, evidence, methods, and models relevant for studying environmental
management are presented here in six stand-alone thematic volumes, as follows:
VOLUME 1 – Managing Global Resources and Universal Processes
VOLUME 2 – Managing Biological and Ecological Systems
VOLUME 3 – Managing Soils and Terrestrial Systems
VOLUME 4 – Managing Water Resources and Hydrological Systems
VOLUME 5 – Managing Air Quality and Energy Systems
VOLUME 6 – Managing Human and Social Systems
In this manner, the handbook introduces in the first volume the general concepts and processes used
in environmental management. The next four volumes deal with each of the four spheres of nature
(biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere). The last volume ties the material together in its
application to human and social systems. These are very important chapters for a wide spectrum of stu-
dents and professionals to understand and implement environmental management. In particular, the
features include the following:
• The first handbook that demonstrates the key processes and provisions for enhancing environ-
mental management.
• Addresses new and cutting-edge topics on ecosystem services, resilience, sustainability, food–
energy–water nexus, socio-ecological systems, etc.
• Provides an excellent basic knowledge on environmental systems, explains how these systems
function, and gives strategies on how to manage them.
• Written by an outstanding group of environmental experts.
Since the handbook covers such a wide range of materials from basic processes, to tools, technolo-
gies, case studies, and legislative actions, each handbook entry is further classified into the following
categories:
APC: Anthropogenic chemicals: The chapters cover human-manufactured chemicals and activities
COV: Indicates that the chapters give comparative overviews of important topics for environmental
management

ix
x Preface

CSS: The chapters give a case study of a particular environmental management example
DIA: Means that the chapters are about diagnostic tools: monitoring, ecological modeling, ecologi-
cal indicators, and ecological services
ELE: Focuses on the use of legislation or policy to address environmental problems
ENT: Addresses environmental management using environmental technologies
NEC: Natural elements and chemicals: The chapters cover basic elements and chemicals found in
nature
PRO: The chapters cover basic environmental processes.
Volume 6, Managing Human and Social Systems, applies the cumulative knowledge of environmental
science and systems specifically into managing human and social systems. There are over 50 entries
covering a wide area from environmental legislation and policy to human health, economics, sustain-
able development, and green technologies. New entries are included to cover environmental accounting,
limits to growth, and urban agriculture. Case studies investigate the impact of cell tower placement,
health consequences of pesticides in developing countries, and the promise of community-based moni-
toring. This culminating volume gives guidance for effective environmental management and a glimpse
into future challenges and opportunities.

Brian D. Fath
Brno, Czech Republic
December 2019
Editors

Brian D. Fath is Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Towson University (Maryland,
USA) and Senior Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
(Laxenburg, Austria). He has published over 180 research papers, reports, and book chapters on envi-
ronmental systems modeling, specifically in the areas of network analysis, urban metabolism, and
sustainability. He has co-authored the books A New Ecology: Systems Perspective (2020), Foundations
for Sustainability: A Coherent Framework of Life–Environment Relations (2019), and Flourishing within
Limits to Growth: Following Nature’s Way (2015). He is also Editor-in-Chief for the journal Ecological
Modelling and Co-Editor-in-Chief for Current Research in Environmental Sustainability. He was the
2016 recipient of the Prigogine Medal for outstanding work in systems ecology and twice a Fulbright
Distinguished Chair (Parthenope University, Naples, Italy in 2012 and Masaryk University, Czech
Republic in 2019). In addition, he has served as Secretary General of the International Society for
Ecological Modelling, Co-Chair of the Ecosystem Dynamics Focus Research Group in the Community
Surface Modeling Dynamics System, and member and past Chair of Baltimore County Commission on
Environmental Quality.

Sven E. Jørgensen (1934–2016) was Professor of environmental chemistry at Copenhagen University.


He received a doctorate of engineering in environmental technology and a doctorate of science in eco-
logical modeling. He was an honorable doctor of science at Coimbra University (Portugal) and Dar
es Salaam (Tanzania). He was Editor-in-Chief of Ecological Modelling from the journal inception in
1975 until 2009. He was Editor-in-Chief for the Encyclopedia of Environmental Management (2013) and
Encyclopedia of Ecology (2008). In 2004, he was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize and the Prigogine
Medal. He was awarded the Einstein Professorship by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005. In 2007,
he received the Pascal Medal and was elected a member of the European Academy of Sciences. He has
published over 350 papers and has edited or written over 70 books. He gave popular and well-received
lectures and courses in ecological modeling, ecosystem theory, and ecological engineering worldwide.

xi
Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group
http://taylorandfrancis.com
Contributors

Diana Aga Richard W. Bell


Department of Chemistry School of Environmental Science
State University of New York at Buffalo Murdoch University
Buffalo, New York Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Jirapat Ananpattarachai Sanford V. Berg


Center of Excellence for Environmental Director of Water Studies
Research and Innovation Public Utility Research Center
Faculty of Engineering University of Florida
Naresuan University Gainesville, Florida
Phitsanulok, Thailand
W.E.H. Blum
Massimo Antoninetti Institute of Soil Research
Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences
Environment (IREA) Vienna, Austria
National Research Council of Italy (CNR)
Milan, Italy Ben Boer
School of Law
Seungyun Baik University of Sydney
Department of Chemistry Sydney, Australia
State University of New York at Buffalo
Buffalo, New York J.D. Booker
Environmental Compliance Department
Simone Bastianoni Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC
Ecodynamics Group Amarillo, Texas
Department of Chemistry
University of Siena Elvira Buonocore
Siena, Italy Laboratory of Ecodynamics and Sustainable
Development
Anders Baun Department of Science and Technology
Department of Environmental Engineering Parthenope University of Naples
Technical University of Denmark Napoli, Italy
Kongens Lyngby, Denmark and
CoNISMa
Piazzale Flaminio, Rome, Italy

xiii
xiv Contributors

Ni-Bin Chang Natalia Fath


Department of Civil, Environmental, and Department of Geography and
Construction Engineering Environmental Planning
University of Central Florida Towson University
Orlando, Florida Towson, Maryland

Guangnan Chen Maria R. Finckh


Faculty of Engineering and Surveying Department of Ecological Plant Protection
University of Southern Queensland University of Kassel
Toowoomba, Australia Witzenhausen, Germany

Angelique Chettiparamb Pier Paolo Franzese


School of Real Estate and Planning Laboratory of Ecodynamics and Sustainable
University of Reading Development
Reading, United Kingdom Department of Science and Technology
Parthenope University of Naples
Richard Cowell Napoli, Italy
School of Geography and Planning and
Cardiff University CoNISMa
Cardiff, United Kingdom Piazzale Flaminio, Rome, Italy

Gemma Cranston W. Friesl-Hanl


Global Footprint Network Environmental Analysis
Geneva, Switzerland Environment Agency Austria
and
Christina D. DiFonzo Institute of Soil Research
Department of Entomology University of Natural Resources and
Michigan State University Life Sciences
East Lansing, Michigan Vienna, Austria

Barbara Dinham Alessandro Galli


Eurolink Center Global Footprint Network
Pesticide Action Network UK Geneva, Switzerland
London, United Kingdom
M.H. Gerzabek
George Ekström Institute of Soil Research
Swedish National Chemicals University of Natural Resources and
Inspectorate (KEMI) Life Sciences
Solna, Sweden Vienna, Austria

Brian D. Fath Timothy S. Goebel


Department of Biological Sciences Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS)
Towson University U.S. Department of Agriculture
Towson, Maryland Lubbock, Texas
and
Advanced Systems Analysis Program Khara D. Grieger
International Institute for Applied System Department of Environmental Engineering
Analysis Technical University of Denmark
Laxenburg, Austria Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Contributors xv

Lisa Guan Sven E. Jørgensen


School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Institute A, Section of Environmental Chemistry
Engineering Copenhagen University
Science and Engineering Faculty Copenhagen, Denmark
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia Puangrat Kajitvichyanukul
Center of Excellence for Environmental Research
Denis Hamilton and Innovation
Queensland Department of Primary Industries Faculty of Engineering
Brisbane, Australia Naresuan University
Phitsanulok, Thailand
Ian Hannam
Center for Natural Resources Robert J. Lascano
Department of Infrastructure Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS)
Planning and Natural Resources U.S. Department of Agriculture
Sydney, Australia Lubbock, Texas

Steffen Foss Hansen Leslie London


Department of Environmental Engineering Occupational and Environmental Health
Technical University of Denmark Research Unit
Kongens Lyngby, Denmark University of Cape Town
Observatory, South Africa
Kelsey Hart
College of Veterinary Medicine Graça Martinho
University of Georgia Department of Environmental Sciences and
Athens, Georgia Engineering
Faculty of Sciences and Technology
James G. Hewlett New University of Lisbon
Energy Information Administration Caparica, Portugal
U.S. Department of Energy
Washington, District of Columbia Thomas J. Mbise
Tanzania Association of Public Occupational and
Rusty T. Hodapp Environmental Health Experts
Energy and Transportation Management Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Board
Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, Texas Alexandra Navrotsky
Department of Chemical Engineering and
Tim Jackson Materials Science
University of Surrey University of California, Davis
United Kingdom Davis, California, U.S.A.

Ike Jeon Elena Neri


Department of Animal Science and Industry Ecodynamics Group
Kansas State University Department of Chemistry
Manhattan, Kansas University of Siena
Siena, Italy
xvi Contributors

Aiwerasia V.F. Ngowi Wendell A. Porter


Tanzania Association of Public Occupational and Department of Agricultural and
Environmental Health Experts Biological Engineering
and University of Florida
Department of Environmental and Occupational Gainesville, Florida
Health
Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Larama M.B. Rongo
Sciences (MUHAS) Muhimbili University of Health and
Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania Allied Sciences
Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
Valentina Niccolucci
Ecodynamics Group Stephen A. Roosa
Department of Chemistry Energy Systems Group, Inc.
University of Siena Louisville, Kentucky
Siena, Italy
Giovanni F. Russo
Egide Nizeyimana Laboratory of Ecodynamics and
Department of Agronomy Sustainable Development
and Department of Science and
Environmental Resources Research Institute Technology
Pennsylvania State University Parthenope University of Naples
University Park, Pennsylvania Napoli, Italy
and
Jacob Opadeyi CoNISMa
Department of Surveying and Land Information Piazzale Flaminio, Rome, Italy
Faculty of Engineering
University of the West Indies Alka Sapat
St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago School of Public Administration
Florida Atlantic University
Margareta Palmborg Boca Raton, Florida
Swedish Poisons Information Center
Stockholm, Sweden Jan Henrik Schmidt
Department of Ecological Plant
Mark A. Peterson Protection
Sustainable Success LLC University of Kassel
Clementon, New Jersey Witzenhausen, Germany

David Pimentel Joshua Steinfeld


Department of Entomology Old Dominion University
Cornell University Norfolk, Virginia
Ithaca, New York
Evamarie Straube
Ana Pires University Professor Emerita
Department of Environmental Sciences and Rostock, Germany
Engineering
Faculty of Sciences and Technology
New University of Lisbon
Caparica, Portugal
Contributors xvii

Sebastian Straube Apichon Watcharenwong


Professor and Division Director School of Environmental Engineering
Division of Preventive Medicine Suranaree University of Technology
Department of Medicine Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
University of Alberta
Alberta, Canada W.W. Wenzel
Institute of Soil Research
Praful Suchak University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences
Sneha Plastics Pvt. Ltd. Vienna, Austria
Suchak’s Consultancy Services
Mumbai, India Catharina Wesseling
Central American Institute for Studies on Toxic
Abhishek Tiwary Substances (IRET)
School of Engineering and Sustainable National University
Development Heredia, Costa Rica
De Montfort University
United Kingdom Wanpen Wirojanagud
Department of Environmental Engineering
Peter A. Victor Faculty of Engineering
Professor Emeritus KhonKaen University
York University Khon Kaen, Thailand
Toronto, Canada and
Center of Excellence on Hazardous Substance
Nemi Vora Management
Biological Systems and Engineering Division National Centers of Excellence (PERDO)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Bangkok, Thailand
Berkeley, California

Mathis Wackernagel
Global Footprint Network
Oakland, California
Taylor & Francis
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http://taylorandfrancis.com
I
APC:
Anthropogenic
Chemicals and
Activities

1
Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group
http://taylorandfrancis.com
1
Food: Pesticide
Contamination
Introduction ...................................................................................................... 3
Before Registration ........................................................................................... 3
After Registration ............................................................................................. 4
Food Processing................................................................................................ 5
Trade Issues ....................................................................................................... 5
Analytical Methods for Pesticide Residues ................................................... 6
Future ................................................................................................................. 6
Denis Hamilton References ......................................................................................................... 7

Introduction
How much pesticide residue did I eat today?
No more than necessary, and less than would be detrimental to your health.
Government authorities must be able to support the answer to the consumer’s question with scien-
tific data and valid scientific studies.[1] The “no more residues than necessary” concept originates from
the principle of good agricultural practice, which implies that the desired effect (pest control) will be
achieved without leaving more residues than necessary in the food.

Before Registration
Pesticide residue evaluation and risk assessment prior to registration are summarized in Figure 1.[2,3]
Risks to the environment and to the user are also evaluated but are not considered further under the
present topic—food contamination with pesticide residues.
Metabolism studies on a pesticide in crops and farm animals identify the nature of the residue. The
residue may consist of a parent compound or metabolites or a mixture. In some cases, different pesti-
cides produce the same metabolites; in other cases, the metabolite of one pesticide is another pesticide.
Some crops genetically modified for herbicide resistance achieve their resistance by metabolizing the
herbicide to a derivative with no herbicidal activity.
The acceptable daily intake (ADI) of a chemical is the daily intake, expressed on a body-weight basis,
which, during an entire lifetime, appears to be without appreciable risk to the health of the consumer
on the basis of all the known facts at the time. The ADI is based on animal feeding studies that find the
daily dose over a lifetime resulting in no observable adverse effect on the most sensitive animal species
tested. Then, a margin of safety (safety factor, commonly 100) is applied to allow for extrapolation from
animals to humans and the variability in responses between average and highly sensitive humans.

3
4 Managing Human and Social Systems

Plant Farm animal


metabolism metabolism Lab animal metabolism studies

Establish the pesticide use pattern Pesticide toxicology studies


necessary for pest control
identity
of the Supervised field trials - measure Estimate values for
residue residues resulting from use pattern ADI and acute RfD

RISK ASSESSMENT
Are the toxicology and dietary
intake of residues compatible?

Set official MRL

Register use pattern on official label

FIGURE 1 Risk assessment process before registration for pesticide residues in food. ADI: acceptable daily intake;
Acute RfD: acute reference dose; MRL: maximum residue limit or tolerance.
Source: Hamilton DJ, Food contamination with pesticide residues, in Encyclopedia of Pest Management, 2002,
p 287.

The acute reference dose (acute RfD or ARfD) of a chemical is an estimate of the amount normally
expressed on a body-weight basis, which can be ingested in a period of 24 hours or less without appre-
ciable health risk to the consumer on the basis of all known facts at the time of the evaluation. The acute
RfD is also based on the results of animal dosing studies with a suitable safety factor.
The maximum residue limit (MRL), synonymous with “tolerance,” is the maximum concentration
of pesticide residue legally permitted in or on food commodities. The MRL usually applies to the com-
modity of trade, which may or may not be the same as the edible portion. For a fruit such as apples, it is
the same, while for bananas, the MRL applies to the whole banana, but only the pulp is eaten. An MRL
provides a division between food that is legally acceptable or unacceptable. Foods derived from com-
modities complying with the relevant MRLs are intended to be toxicologically acceptable, but the MRL
is not a dividing line between safe and unsafe.
Supervised residue trials on animal feed commodities and livestock feeding studies with pesticide
residues generate the information required to support MRLs for meat, milk, and eggs.
Risk assessment tells us whether or not the amounts of residue are likely to be safe for consumers.[4,5]
We estimate dietary intake (also referred to as “dietary exposure”) of pesticide residues by multiplying
the level of residue in the food ready for consumption by the amount of the food consumed. For chronic
risk assessment, we compare the sum for all foods of expected long-term average intake with the ADI for
the pesticide. For acute risk assessment, we compare possible intake from high consumption of a food,
in a period of 24 hours or less, with the acute RfD.

After Registration
The design of monitoring studies for residues in food commodities depends on the purpose: random
survey of food consignments (surveillance), targeted enforcement sampling where a residue problem is
suspected, export monitoring to meet trade requirements, and total diet studies.
Government authorities regularly survey agricultural and animal products for levels of pesticide
residues. If the label directions were based on reliable and representative field trials and if users are
Food: Pesticide Contamination 5

faithfully following label directions, then residues will be within the legal MRLs. Most surveys have
demonstrated a high level of compliance.
Total diet studies identify which pesticides and measure in what quantities people are actually con-
suming. Food purchased in the marketplace is prepared by peeling and cooking as in the normal house-
hold and is then subjected to residue analysis. Amounts of foods consumed are known from specially
designed food surveys for subpopulations such as adult males and females, children, toddlers, and
infants, as well as for ethnic groups and regions or localities. Dietary intakes for populations and sub-
populations are calculated from the diets and the residue levels found by analysis. Commonly, total diet
studies demonstrate intakes much less than the ADI.

Food Processing
Food processing usually reduces pesticide residue levels because of the washing or cleaning, peel-
ing, milling, juicing, cooking, or baking. Residue levels may increase in some processed commodities
because the residue tends more to one fraction than another.[6] For example, residues on the surface of
a wheat grain will find their way into the bran fraction with little in the flour. Residues of oil-soluble
pesticides will find their way mainly into the vegetable oil fraction from an oilseed such as soybean.
In particular cases, a food process can change the nature of the residue. For example, ethylenebisdi-
thiocarbamate fungicides are converted, on cooking, to ethylenethiourea, which is more toxic than the
parent pesticide. Fortunately, ethylenebisdithiocarbamates are essentially surface residues, and their
levels can substantially be reduced by thorough washing before a cooking or blanching step.

Trade Issues
MRL values derived from good agricultural practice are, by their nature, local. A pesticide is used in the
best way within local cultural practices to control a specific pest, and the rate of pesticide disappear-
ance depends on local environmental conditions. Comparisons among countries of national MRLs and
tolerances will frequently reveal substantial differences. Table 1 shows the range of MRLs for ethephon
in 17 countries for each of four commodities.

TABLE 1 National Ethephon MRLs and Tolerances (mg/kg) in 1999[7]


Peppers Tomatoes Pineapples Grapes
Argentina 2 2
Australia 2 2 10
Brazil 1.5 0.5
Canada 2
France 0.05
India 2 2
Ireland 3 3
Italy 3 0.05 Wine grapes
3 Table grapes
Korea 3 1 2
Netherlands 3 3
New Zealand 1
Poland 3
Portugal 3 3
South Africa 1 5
Taiwan 2 2 2
United Kingdom 3 3
United States 30 2 2 2
6 Managing Human and Social Systems

The differences pose problems for international trade in food commodities. The importing country
may reject shipments of food that do not comply with its national MRLs. It is attractive for some lobby
groups and some governments to use national differences in MRLs as a barrier to trade.
Where no MRL or tolerance has been set for a pesticide on a food, some national governments apply a
“zero tolerance,” that is, the MRL is assumed to be zero unless otherwise stated. The reason no MRL is set
could simply be that the pest problem does not occur or that the crop is not produced locally; for example,
cold temperate countries do not produce pineapples, so there will be no local uses or local MRLs.
The Codex Alimentarius Commission was established in 1961 to implement the FAO/WHO Food
Standards Program. A purpose of the program is to protect the health of consumers and to ensure fair
practices in the food trade. The Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues (CCPR) has the responsibility
to establish Codex MRLs for food commodities in international trade.
CCPR relies on the data supplied by member governments and has established many MRLs. The
methods of data evaluation in Codex are very similar to the methods in countries with regulatory con-
trol of pesticide use; Codex draws on the expertise of scientists from such countries around the world.
Member government acceptance of Codex MRLs for food commodities in international trade is reduc-
ing the incidence of trade barriers based on national MRLs.
Developing countries have sometimes suffered pesticide residue trade difficulties because a lack of
resources has made it difficult for them to monitor their exports effectively to ensure compliance with
the importing country MRL requirements.

Analytical Methods for Pesticide Residues


Analytical methods for pesticide residues in food typically rely on gas-liquid chromatography (GLC)
or high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in the final measurement step following extrac-
tion from the sample and a sequence of clean-up steps.[2,8] Multiresidue methods include many residues
in one procedure for the sake of economy. Monitoring usually requires the detection and quantitative
measurement of residue levels down to concentrations of around 0.01–0.05 mg/kg. Laboratories must
validate their procedures down to the required level, that is, prove that the procedures can identify and
measure with a specified precision residues down to a required “limit of quantification” (LOQ).
The LOQ is important in the interpretation of monitoring data. An analytical result reported as “less
than LOQ” or sometimes as “no detectable residue” could possibly mean no residue or a residue at a level
too low for the method.
Not all pesticide residues are amenable to inclusion in multiresidue methods; they may need separate
analysis, which becomes expensive. Reports of monitoring data should state explicitly which residues
would have been detected if present above stated LOQs.
Reliable high-quality data are essential for correct interpretation during registration, investigation,
and control of residues in food. Highly skilled analysts using good laboratory practices, standard proce-
dures, and other measures are generating valid data to support those requirements.

Future
The science of risk assessment will be further developed. Food safety and food security will continue to
be important for consumer, government, and industry.[9] Trade issues will continue to be problematic
with specific incidents of residues in foods arising from time to time. National governments will develop
strategic approaches to deal with trade issues related to pesticide residues. Knowledgeable people in gov-
ernment and industry and experienced workers in functioning laboratories will be needed to support
those strategic approaches. Exporters will need to monitor residues in a high percentage of their exports
to meet the requirements of their customers. We might expect more developments with biopesticides.
Relevant impurities in biopesticides are more likely to be biological than chemical, posing new chal-
lenges for analytical and test methods.
Food: Pesticide Contamination 7

References
1. Frehse, H. ed. 1991. Pesticide Chemistry, Advances in International Research, Development, and
Legislation, Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry (IUPAC),
Hamburg, 1990. VCH Verlagsgesellschaft mbH: Weinheim, Germany; 361–601.
2. FAO. 2016. Submission and Evaluation of Pesticide Residues Data for the Estimation of Maximum
Residue Levels in Food and Feed; third edition. FAO Plant Production and Protection Paper,
225:1–286.
3. Dishburger, H.J., Ballantine, L.G., McCarthy, J., Murphy, J. and Tweedy, B. G., eds. 1991. Pesticide
Residues and Food Safety: A Harvest of Viewpoints. ACS Symposium Series 446, American Chemical
Society: Washington, DC, 1–348.
4. Hamilton, D.J., Holland, P.T., Ohlin, B. et al. 1997. Optimum use of available residue data in the
estimation of dietary intake of pesticides. Pure Appl. Chem. 69:1373–1410.
5. WHO. 2009. Principles and Methods for the Risk Assessment of Chemicals in Food, IPCS. Chapter
6, Dietary Exposure Assessment of Chemicals in Food. Environmental Health Criteria 240.
6. Holland, P.T., Hamilton, D., Ohlin, B. and Skidmore, M.W. 1994. Effects of storage and processing
on pesticide residues in plant products. Pure Appl. Chem. 66:335–356.
7. FAO. 2000. Pesticide Residues in Food. Ethephon. Evaluations 1999. FAO Plant Production and
Protection Paper, 157:210.
8. Ambrus, Á. 1999. Quality of Residue Data. In Pesticide Chemistry and Bioscience: The Food-
Environment Challenge, Brooks, G.T. and Roberts, T.R., eds., 339–360. The Royal Society of
Chemistry: Cambridge.
9. Ambrus, Á. and Hamilton, D. 2017. Chapter 12, Future Directions. In Food Safety Assessment of
Pesticide Residues, Ambrus, Á. and Hamilton, D., eds., 507–510. World Scientific Press: Singapore.
Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group
http://taylorandfrancis.com
2
Human Health: Consumer
Concerns to Pesticides
Introduction ...................................................................................................... 9
Pests and Pesticide Safety in Homes and Gardens ..................................... 10
Food Residues .................................................................................................. 11
Pesticide Residues in Foods from Organic, Integrated and Conventional
Production
Towards Residue-Reduced Food Crops ...................................................... 12
Government Action Plans • Retailer Initiatives
NGO Initiatives—Ranking Residue Contents ............................................ 12
Conclusions ......................................................................................................13
George Ekström and Acknowledgments ...........................................................................................13
Margareta Palmborg References ....................................................................................................... 13

Introduction
A recent European survey of risk perception and food safety showed, in line with previous research
findings, that consumers tend to worry most about risks caused by external factors over which they
have little or no control. Consequently, consumers appear to be less worried about risks possibly
associated with their own behavior or practices. Physicians and scientists are the most trusted infor-
mation sources with regard to serious food risks, followed by public authorities and mass media.
Economic operators (food manufacturers, farmers, and retailers) are cited as being among the
least trusted.[1]
Interviews conducted with over 1,000 consumers in a survey done in 2001 by the British Co-op Group
showed that consumers were concerned about the effects of pesticides. Consumers who took part in
this survey, when prompted with a series of questions, were concerned that pesticides are harmful to
wildlife, leave residues in food, pollute water courses, are harmful to growing children, are harmful to
the respondents themselves, and damage the health of farm workers.[2,3] According to a personal com-
munication with David Pimentel, in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has reported
that 97% of people prefer foods without pesticides.
Particular causes of consumer concern are the potential for ‘cocktail’ effects from multiple resi-
dues (see Table 1),[4–6] and the fact that children may exceed health- related acute reference doses
even at legally acceptable residue levels (see Table 2).[6] In Australia, the Food Standards code con-
tains provisions for an additional, overall limit for pesticides belonging to the same chemical group
(see Table 3).[7]

9
10 Managing Human and Social Systems

TABLE 1 Multiple Residues Found in a Single Sample of Pears 2004


Residue Level Maximum Residue Residue Level in % of
Pesticides Found (mg/kg) Limit (mg/kg) Maximum Residue Limit
Dithiocarbamates 0.305 3 10
Chlorpropham 0.155 0.05 310
Azinphosmethyl 0.084 0.5 17
Procymidone 0.071 1 7
Dichlofluanid 0.060 5 1
Chlorpyriphos 0.059 0.5 12
Bromopropylate 0.055 0.05 110
Cyprodinil 0.022 — —
Combined total residues 466
Source: Swedish food residue monitoring report (see Andersson and Jansson[6]).

TABLE 2 Food Residues Potentially Leading to Short Time Intake in Excess of the Acute Reference Dose
(ARfD) for Toddlers 2004
Food Highest Residue Maximum Residue ARfD (mg/kg Intake, % of ARfD
Pesticide Commodity Found (mg/kg) Limit (mg/kg) Body weight) for Toddlers
Dicrotophos Chinese broccoli 4.14 — 0.0017 1,763
Lambda- Lettuce 0.92 1 0.0075 106
cyhalothrin
Oxamyl Cucumber 0.42 — 0.009 135
Endosulfan Melon 0.21 0.3 0.02 110
Monocrotophos Zuccini 0.14 — 0.002 381
Aldicarb Potatoes 0.035 0.5 0.003 122
Source: Swedish food residue monitoring report (see Andersson and Jansson[6]).

TABLE 3 Approaches to the Limitation of Organophosphorus Pesticide Residues in Food in Australia and by the
British Co-operative Group, Respectively
Group
Tolerance in
Australia and
Co-op Zero Co-op Zero
Group Tolerance in Australia Tolerance Tolerance
Azamethiphos, azinphos-ethyl, azinphos-methyl, coumaphos, demeton, diazinon, Ethoprophos, Cadusafos,
dichlorvos, dimethoate, disulfoton, dithianon, ethion, famphur, fenchlorphos, fenamiphos, chlorfenvinphos,
fenitrothion, fenthion, formothion, maldison,a methamidophos, methidathion, omethoate, demeton-S-methyl,
mevinphos, naphtalophos,b parathion-methyl, phosmet, pirimiphos- ethyl, phorate, phosphamidon,
pirimiphos-methyl, pyrazophos, sulprophos, temephos, tetrachlorvinphos, prothiofos tebupirimfos,
thiometon, S.S.S-tributylphosphorotrithioate, trichlorfon, vamidothion terbufos
Source: Maximum residue limits—Chemical groups[7] and The Co-operative Group.[11]
a ISO common name is malathion.
b WHO INN, no ISO common name available.

Pests and Pesticide Safety in Homes and Gardens


Consumers use a range of pesticides in their homes and gardens:
• Herbicides against weeds in vegetables, moss in turf, brush, etc.
• Fungicides against mold, mildew, etc.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
THE STAR-CLUSTER 47 TOUCANI
From Sir John Herschel’s drawing

Smaller than ω Centauri, but even more beautiful in the


telescope, is the cluster 47 Toucani,[10] which to the unaided eye
appears like a fourth-magnitude star near the smaller Cloud of
Magellan. The long curve of Grus followed southwards leads to it.
Nearly as many stars as in ω Centauri, or about 9500, are here
massed into a still smaller space, so the cluster is brighter, and is
“compressed to a blaze of light” at the centre. The two sets of stars,
which are mingled together throughout, are of thirteenth to fifteenth
and of seventeenth magnitudes respectively. Herschel saw the inner
denser part rose-coloured while the outer was white, but the present
writer could not see this nor find anyone to confirm it to-day, possibly
because the refracting telescopes now so often used do not show
colour so well as large reflectors like Herschel’s. A double star of
11th magnitude, which is conspicuous in Herschel’s drawing, is
doubtless far outside the cluster, and only appears projected against
it by perspective.
Near β Aquarii there shines with the light of a sixth-magnitude
star another “magnificent ball of stars” which has been compared to
“a heap of fine sand.” It is named 2 M Aquarii.
Over seventy of these tightly packed balls of stars are known,
even counting only the brightest, and their distribution is rather
curious. A large number (about twenty) occur in the Clouds of
Magellan, and more than half of the seventy are in the Milky Way,
not scattered evenly along its course, but almost if not entirely
confined to its southern part, and chiefly gathered in a great group in
its brightest portion, where it passes through Sagittarius, Ophiuchus,
and Aquila. Here they are mingled with—or perhaps projected
against—numerous stars of the same magnitudes; but many balls
are also found outside the Milky Way, widely scattered, and in these
parts of the sky there are relatively few of the faint-magnitude stars
which compose all the globular clusters. 47 Toucani, for instance,
though it is near the small Magellanic Cloud, stands quite apart from
it, isolated in a black sky.
We do not know the distances of any of these balls of stars.
Those which have been examined spectroscopically shine like
Canopus—that is, they are of a type intermediate between Sirius and
our sun—but the chief light comes, of course, from the brighter stars,
and it may be that the fainter stars mingled with them belong to a
different type.
A remarkable fact lately discovered is that many globular clusters
—but not all—contain a large number of variable stars. These vary in
light in a period of about a day and have a range of about one
magnitude. They are not of the Algol type, nor quite of the usual
“short-period” types, and it is not yet clear what is the cause of
variation, though it seems probable that “cluster-variables” are
double stars.
XIV
NEBULAE

Athwart the False Cross, from δ Velorum to ι Carinae, a line


passing on leads to the round white spot which we found to be a
star-cluster. A little further in the same direction is a larger curved
white patch, bright enough to be visible, once it is familiar, even after
the moon has risen. This is the Great Nebula in Argo, the Keyhole
Nebula, in which Eta Argūs once blazed out. Even a binocular will
divide it into two parts separated by a chasm, and will show the
pearly background powdered over with many small stars.
But even the most powerful telescopes do not resolve this pale
background into stars, as they resolve the star-cluster just
mentioned: it remains a pearly mist, the brighter part strangely
broken by dark rifts, the fainter, beyond the chasm, a tangled skein
of long cloudy streaks reaching out into the darkness and gradually,
irregularly, fading away.
When Herschel found this background unresolvable into stars, he
concluded that it did not form part of the Milky Way, but was at an
immeasurable distance behind, so that here he was looking right
through the Galaxy at a still more distant region of stars, too distant
and faint for his telescope to distinguish them separately. But the
spectroscope has taught us that these cloud-like nebulae, though
stars are often mingled with them, are not formed of stars at all, but
of inchoate masses of faintly luminous gas; and they cluster so
thickly in the Milky Way, generally avoiding other parts of the sky,
that it seems evident that they lie in it and form part of it. They are
also found in great numbers in the Greater Magellanic Cloud.
If the days of the Herschel’s photography had not come to the aid
of astronomers, and Sir John speaks of the feeling of despair which
often almost overcame him when trying, night after night, to draw the
“endless details” of this nebula, so capricious in their forms are its
curving branches and the dark spaces between, so strangely does
its brightness vary in different regions, and so numerous are the
stars scattered over it. With extraordinary patience he succeeded in
cataloguing the positions of over 1200 of these. To compare the
present aspect of the stars with his catalogue would be a laborious
task, but might lead to results of great value.
The curious dark oval rift in the midst of the bright part, which he
compared with a keyhole, he found to be not entirely devoid of light,
a thin nebulous veil covering part of it; and many of the dark lanes
and holes which in small instruments look perfectly black, are
actually filled with faint stars and extremely faint nebulosity. The
whole region near the nebula is exceedingly rich in stars, and also in
star-clusters, as we have already seen. To quote Herschel once
again:
“Nor is it easy for language to convey a full impression of the
beauty and sublimity of the spectacle it offers when viewed in a
sweep, ushered in as it is by so glorious and innumerable a
procession of stars, to which it forms a sort of climax, justifying
expressions which, though I find them written in my journal, in the
excitement of the moment, would be thought extravagant if conveyed
to these pages. In fact, it is impossible for anyone with the least
spark of astronomical enthusiasm about him to pass soberly in
review, with a powerful telescope and in a fine night, that portion of
the southern sky ... such are the variety and interest of the objects
he will encounter, and such the dazzling richness of the starry
ground on which they are presented to his gaze.”
In the constellation of the Sword-fish, on the edge of the Great
Cloud of Magellan, is another nebula, 30 Doradūs, the Great Looped
Nebula, which is even more marvellous in complexity of structure
than the Keyhole Nebula in Argo. No photograph can reproduce, and
no words can describe, the filmy appearance of these nebulae as
seen in a telescope. The Looped Nebula seems to consist entirely of
strangely curved and twisted streamers on a background of dark sky,
with a few sparkling stars of various brightness scattered over it. At
the complicated centre one of the loops forms a nearly perfect figure-
of-eight, and another takes the outline of an eye.
Brightest of all the large gaseous nebulae is the well-known Orion
Nebula, in the sword of the giant. A 3-inch telescope shows the main
features well, the dark bay running into its brightest region, the row
of three brilliant stars and the “trapezium” of four tiny ones very close
together, and the long outlying branches which have such fantastic
curves. Because of its comparative brightness, its entrancing beauty,
and its position where it can be seen from all latitudes, this nebula
has been studied more than any other. The first drawing of it was
made in 1656, the first photograph in 1880. It remains a baffling
mystery still, but a few facts have emerged.
Its distance is immeasurable: it has been guessed at a thousand
light-years. It must, therefore, be inconceivably vast in extent, but it
is probably excessively tenuous, like a comet’s tail, of which a million
miles contain a negligible amount of matter. It is almost stationary in
space, and a careful study of its form since 1758 proves that there
has been no visible change, except perhaps in the relative
brightness of some of its parts. Yet a recent spectroscopic
investigation shows that movements are taking place in different
directions within the nebula, and a slow rotation of the whole mass,
or of its brightest portion, is suggested.
It is composed of faintly luminous gas, though whether it glows
from heat or from some other cause we do not know. Photographs of
nebulae are very misleading with regard to brightness: one must
remember that they have often been exposed for many hours.
Helium, hydrogen, and an unknown gas which we call nebulium are
mingled together, but not in equal quantities. In some of the fainter
regions of the nebula, especially on the south and west borders,
hydrogen produces a great deal of the light; in the brightest parts,
near the trapezium, the glow of nebulium is much more prominent.
It is scarcely doubtful that many of the stars which appear to be
involved in the nebula are physically connected with it, especially
since they are of a type frequently found near nebulae, viz. very blue
Orion-type stars with some of their hydrogen lines not dark but
bright, as in the nebula.
The southern hemisphere is rich in nebulae smaller but of the
same kind as these three magnificent objects, the Keyhole, the
Looped, and the Orion Nebulae—that is, large irregular masses of
gas, often spangled with stars—and each has some special beauty
of its own; but for most of them large telescopes are needed to grasp
the faint details. There is a nest of them in the northern part of
Sagittarius: a cloudy streak visible to the naked eye, a little north of
the star γ Sagittarii, represents three nebulae and clusters close
together—M 8, M 20, and M 21. The first is a wonderful combination
of a bright scattered star-cluster and a gaseous nebula, with dark
rifts dividing the cloudy structure. The second is the celebrated Trifid
Nebula, less bright and large, but with even more striking black lanes
which split the principal part into three almost separate portions.
Many faint stars are scattered over it, but as they are scarcely more
numerous than in the surrounding regions, most of them probably
are not connected with the nebula. M 21 is a star-cluster.
Near these, where Sagittarius borders on Aquila,[11] is a small but
very remarkable nebula, known from its shape as the Horseshoe or
the Omega Nebula (M 17). It has a curious mottled appearance, with
bright knots here and there.
And a little further west, near together, are two wonderful nebulae
which surround the two stars Rho Ophiuchi and Nu Scorpii.
Professor Barnard, who has studied and taken exquisite
photographs of many nebulae, considers the first of these the finest
in the sky, because of its dark, winding lanes and the veiling of the
stars in places by partly transparent nebulous matter.
XV
OTHER TYPES OF NEBULAE

The large irregular nebulae described in the last chapter are all
more or less mingled with stars, at least in appearance, and it has
been suggested that they are star-clusters in process of formation,
with larger and brighter masses of filmy nebulosity all about them
than at later stages, for long-exposure photographs reveal some
exceedingly faint nebulosities surrounding Kappa Crucis and the
Pleiades and other fully-developed star-clusters. But this can only be
a guess until we know more about the nature of nebulae. In some
regions of the sky we find vast spaces thinly veiled by nebulosity so
faint and transparent that it seems to have reached the very limit at
which matter can exist and be recognised as such. Thus in the
constellation of Orion nearly all the bright stars are connected
together by the vast convolutions of an exceedingly faint diffused
nebula in spiral form, the innermost curve of which ends in the Great
Nebula of the Sword, and the whole region within is filled with faint
light.
Quite distinct from these nebulae are others of perfectly regular
form, very small, purely gaseous, without intermingling of any stars,
but usually with one bright star-like nucleus at the centre. One form
is the ring nebula, of which much the best known is that in the
northern constellation of the Lyre. There are, however, some in the
south. In a large telescope they appear like little golden wedding-
rings against the dark sky background.
Another regular form is the “planetary nebula,” so called because
they look much like planets in large telescopes, being perfectly round
or oval with a sharply-defined edge, and in several cases there are
handle-like appendages, which may possibly be encircling rings, like
the rings of Saturn. These nebulae shine with a peculiar bluish-green
light, the colour of the unknown gas nebulium, of which they are
chiefly composed. In Hydra, south of the star Mu, is one of the
brightest and largest, known as H 27—that is, No. 27 on William
Herschel’s list. It is elliptical and of a lovely bluish colour, with a
bright nucleus exactly in the centre.
By means of these sharply-defined central nuclei it has been
found possible to measure the approaching or receding movements
of these nebulae, and although the one just mentioned is receding
from us with a speed of only 3½ miles a second, their average speed
is high, amounting to 40 or 50 miles a second. One in Sagittarius is
receding at more than 80 miles a second, and another in Lupus
attains a speed of over a hundred.
These are movements comparable with those of stars, but the
average is higher than even for the most rapidly moving class of
stars, the red-solar and Antarians. May we, then, place the planetary
nebulae at the end of our star-series, since we saw that from the
blue down to the red the average movements became faster and
faster, and may we believe that all stars eventually become gaseous
nebulae, as “new stars” seem to do? But we saw that in spectrum
these nebulae rather resemble the stars at the other end of the
series, the Wolf-Rayet, which lead directly to the hottest and
brightest of all, the Orion stars. Planetary nebulae also resemble
Wolf-Rayet, Orion, and Sirian stars, and differ from solar and red
stars in that they cluster near the Milky Way, and are scarcely ever
found far from it. Their place in the universe cannot be established
yet.
One more kind of nebula, the most numerous of all, remains to
be mentioned, the so-called “white nebulae,” which do not glow
green like many of the brighter planetaries, but shine with a white
light and have more or less star-like spectra, although not even the
most powerful telescopes can resolve the white cloudiness into
stars. The typical nebula of this class is the famous Andromeda
Nebula, visible to the naked eye in northern skies as a large oval
spot shining softly “like a candle shining through horn.” Photography
first disclosed the remarkable fact that it has the form of a great,
closely-wound spiral, and further research has shown that by far the
greater number of “white nebulae” have this form. There is a very
fine one in Aquarius,[12] which has been known since 1824, but
visual observations gave absolutely no idea of its true form. A
photograph exposed for four hours in September 1912 showed it
clearly as about two turns of a great spiral.
The distribution of this kind of nebula is quite different from that of
the gaseous nebulae, for, instead of clustering towards the Milky
Way, they avoid it, and especially the brightest region, where we saw
that the others most abound, viz. in Scorpio, Sagittarius, and
Ophiuchus. On the contrary, the largest number of these is found
near the north pole of the Galaxy—that is, as far removed from it as
possible, in Virgo. There is, however, no corresponding group about
the south pole of the Galaxy.
One investigator has found the distance of the Andromeda
Nebula to be twenty light-years, but the distance and the movements
of this type are difficult to discover. They are evidently very different
from the others, and quite as mysterious.
XVI
THE CLOUDS OF MAGELLAN

One of the wonders which most attracted the attention of early


explorers in the southern hemisphere, and roused as much interest
as the Southern Cross, was the pair of faint clouds, looking like
detached pieces of the Milky Way, which are seen in the
neighbourhood of the South Pole. Marco Polo made a sketch of the
Greater Cloud, which he describes wonderingly as “a star as big as a
sack.”
Although some star-maps show short branches of Milky Way
pointing towards the two Clouds, this is incorrect, and they are quite
separate from it. Herschel was struck by their isolation, especially in
the case of the Little Cloud, which he described as situated in a
“most oppressively desolate desert,” its only neighbour being the
globular cluster 47 Toucani, which is near, but separated by a
perfectly black sky.
The Greater Cloud is much brighter to the naked eye than the
Lesser, and it is much more complex and interesting in the
telescope. It contains, moreover, the wonderful Looped Nebula, of
which we have already spoken.
Both Clouds consist of gaseous nebulae and star-clusters on a
background of vague nebulosity and crowds of almost
indistinguishable stars. But the white nebulae shun the Clouds, just
as they shun the Milky Way.
An immense number of variable stars have been discovered in
the Clouds of Magellan, of the same type as those in globular
clusters. Miss Leavitt of Harvard Observatory catalogued from
photographs no less than 969 in the Lesser Cloud and 800 in the
Greater. In the latter the greatest number of variables was found in a
stream of faint stars which connects a group of star-clusters with the
Looped Nebula, and others occur locally in certain parts of the
Cloud, but few are in its northern region or in parts where many of
the brighter stars congregate. All the variables are very faint, the
usual minimum in both Clouds being about fourteenth magnitude,
and the maximum seldom more than one magnitude brighter. A few
in the Lesser Cloud have been found with periods unusually long for
this “cluster type” of variables, amounting to 32, 66, and even 127
days. These longer periods seem to belong to somewhat brighter
stars, but they are quite as exact as the usual period of a few days or
a single day.
XVII
THE MILKY WAY

Like a great river returning into itself, the Galaxy encircles the
starry heavens, and those who know only its northern course have
no idea of its brilliance and wonderful complexity in its brightest part.
Its light is soft, milky, and almost uniform, between Cygnus and
Sirius, but when it enters Argo it becomes extremely broad, and
spreads out like a river on a flat marshy plain, in many twisting
channels with spaces between. Where Canopus shines on the bank
there is a narrow winding ford right across its whole breadth, as if a
path had been made by the crossing of a star.
After this it suddenly becomes extremely narrow, but so bright
that all the light which was shining in the broad channel seems to be
condensed in this narrow bed. In the brightest, richest part the Great
Nebula of Argo is easily distinguished by the naked eye. Contrasting
with this and other bright condensations are black gaps, the largest
and blackest of which is the well-known Coal-Sack near the
Southern Cross.
THE MILKY WAY IN SCORPIO, LUPUS,
AND ARA
Photographed at Hanover, Cape Colony,
by Bailey and Schultz

The river now divides. One short stream, which goes north from
Centaur towards Antares, is faint and soon lost; but another northern
stream is so bright and so persistent that from Centaur to Cygnus we
may say that the Galaxy flows in a double current. This northern
portion forms first the smoke of the Altar on which the Centaur is
about to offer the Beast, then passes through the Scorpion into the
Serpent-Holder, and here, between η Ophiuchi and Corona Australis,
the double stream has its greatest width. The northern division soon
grows dim and seems to die out, but begins again near β Ophiuchi,
and, curving through a little group of stars, passes through the head
of the Eagle and forms an oval lagoon in the Swan.
The southern stream passes through the Scorpion’s Tail into
Sagittarius, then through the Eagle and the Arrow till it flows close
beside the northern stream in the Swan, and finally rejoins it in a
bright patch round α Cygni. Except just here it is much brighter than
the northern stream, and its structure is even fuller of wonderful
detail than in Argo. In Sagittarius it consists of great rounded patches
with dark spaces between. The brightest of these contains the star γ
Sagittarii; then follows a remarkable region of small patches and
streaks, the portion passing through Sagittarius and Aquila being
thickly studded with nebulae. This is followed by another bright
patch, rivalling that round γ Sagittarii, which involves the stars λ and
6 Aquilae.
This ends the most brilliant and wonderful part of the Milky Way.
When well seen, as we see it in the south, it recalls Herschel’s
words, written at the Cape when it came into view in his telescope:
“The real Milky Way is just come on in great semi-nebulous
masses, running into one another, heaps on heaps.” And again: “The
Milky Way is like sand, not strewed evenly as with a sieve, but as if
flung down by handfuls, and both hands at once.”
What is it? The ancients thought it the pathway of departed
spirits, or fiery exhalations from the earth imprisoned in the skies, or
a former road of the sun through the stars. But Democritus and some
other inquiring Greeks believed it to be the shining of multitudes of
stars too faint and too close together to be seen separately, and we
know this to be the truth. We know also, from simply counting the
stars in different regions of the sky, that their numbers increase
regularly as we go from north or south towards the Milky Way, and
stars of all magnitudes are most abundant within its course. We saw
also that star-clusters and certain kinds of nebulae frequent it, while
other kinds avoid it, and that blue and white stars are the most
abundant near it, and tend to move through space in planes parallel
with it, while the redder stars are scattered and move about in all
directions.
Facts like these lead astronomers to believe that the Milky Way
has a definite relation with all the visible universe, that even the most
distant nebula is not an outlying universe apart from ours, but all are
parts of one vast stellar system.
It is possible that the Milky Way, which we see as a great circle,
double in one part, is really an immense spiral, and that we are
nearest one curve of it, the great southern division which looks so
bright. It may be that the spiral nebulae, vast though they are in
terms of earthly measurement, are tiny models of one tremendous
spiral which enfolds the universe with its coils.

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BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. LTD.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON

Footnotes:
[1] Published at 5s. by Gall & Inglis, Edinburgh and London.
[2] Stars are classified by astronomers in “magnitudes,” i.e.
degrees of brightness, those of first magnitude being the
brightest. Stars below sixth magnitude cannot be seen with the
naked eye.
[3] Compare Aratus:

“The Virgin and the Claws, the Scorpion,


The Archer and the Goat.”

[4] Right ascension in the skies corresponds with longitude on


earth, but is more often reckoned in time than in degrees. For
instance, R.A. 1 hour 35 minutes, the right ascension of Achernar,
means that this star will be on the meridian 1 hour 35 minutes
later than the “first point of Aries”—that is, the point at which the
equator cuts the ecliptic at the spring equinox, the fundamental
point corresponding with Greenwich in earthly longitude.
[5] The stars ε and ι Carinae, κ and δ Velorum, form a cross much
like the Southern Cross, but less bright, and this is called the
False Cross.
[6] A “binary” is a system of two stars which are known to be
comparatively close together and influencing one another’s
movements. A “double star” may be a binary, or the two stars may
really be very far apart and have no connection, merely
happening to lie one nearly behind the other.
[7] Now often called Eta Carinae, since Argo has been subdivided
(see p. 7).
[8] It is easy to remember the names of the stars in the Southern
Cross. Begin at the foot, which is obviously the brightest, and
count round the Cross in clockwise direction α, β, γ, δ. κ is
beyond β in a line with γ, β.
[9] These two astronomers observed at Paramatta, New South
Wales, in the early part of the nineteenth century.
[10] Also named ξ Toucani.
[11] On Scutum in maps where this constellation is not included in
Aquila.
[12] N. G. C. 7293.
Transcriber’s Notes:

The illustrations and footnotes have been moved so that they do not break up
paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate.
Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected.
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