The report is an overview of the pesticide manufacturing industry and prioritizes 80 major pesticides based on their potential environmental burden from an air pollution standpoint. Production of synthetic organic pesticides was about 640,000 metric tons in 1974. Thirty-seven major synthetic organic pesticides, those with annual production of 4540 or more tons, accounted for 74% of the market. Elemental chlorine is common to most pesticides, but other raw materials include hydrogen cyanide, carbon disulfide, phosgene, phosphorus pentasulfide, hexachloro-cyclopentadiene, various amines, and concentrated acids and caustics. Air pollution aspects of the pesticide manufacturing industry are essentially without quantitative data. For some plants, the pollution caused by loss of active ingredients is less significant than that caused by unreacted by-products. Evaporation from holding ponds and evaporation lagoons may also be an emission source, although few quantitative data are available. Emissions emanate from various pieces of equipment and enter the atmosphere as both the active ingredient and as raw materials, intermediates, and by-products. Air emission control devices include baghouses, cyclone separators, electrostatic precipitators, incinerators, and gas scrubbers. Synthetic organic pesticide production in 1985 will be about 806,000 metric tons.

Contract no. 68-02-1874, ROAP no. 21AXM-071, program element no. 1AB015. Mar. 1978. "EPA/600-2-78-004d." "March 1978." Includes bibliographical references (pages 120-122).