Methoxychlor Pesticide

The practice of agriculture, since its early beginnings, has suffered from pests and diseases that cause large losses. Over the last 100 years, the hunt for an effective pesticide has become crucial for agriculture. However, the use of these pesticides have brought more harm than good. Methoxychlor is a synthetic, organochlorine pesticide developed to replace dichlorophenyltrichloroethane (DDT) in 1948. It was preferred due to its low toxicity in mammals and shorter half life than that of DDT, thus decreasing its levels of persistence in the environment (Ye et al, 2014). Methoxychlor was used as an insecticide effective against a wide range of pests and was used on field crops, vegetables, fruits, stored grains, livestock, homes, gardens, lakes, …show more content…
Methoxychlor has been observed to have the potential to promote epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of disease to ancestral environmental exposures (Manikkam, 2014). Epigenetic transgenerational inheritance is defined as the germline transmission of epigenetic information and phenotypic change across generations in the absence of any direct environmental exposure or genetic manipulation. Humans today could still be facing the adverse effects of the pesticide. It also serves as a model for environmental endocrine disrupters. It also serves as a model for the study of organochlorine pesticides, including DDT. Montrose Chemical Corporation of California manufactured the technical grade of the pesticide DDT from 1947 until 1982. The former plant operations included manufacturing, grinding, packaging, and distributing the DDT pesticide (EPA, 1989). In 1982, after Montrose ceased operations, the plant was disassembled and removed from the property. Various hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants entered the environment via several pathways over the 35 years of operation of the Montrose plant, including, releases of non-aqueous phase liquid and wastewaters to the ground, releases to the stormwater drainage pathways, discharge of hazardous substances to sanitary sewers and to the Pacific Ocean, aerial dispersion of DDT dust, and disposal of DDT in soil fill materials (EPA, 1989). EPA has been conducting investigations into whether, where, and how much of this contamination persists today from these mechanisms. Sediments on the ocean floor of the Palos Verdes Shelf are contaminated with DDT. Since little is still known about the current effects of DDT and human exposure to it today to the residents of Southern California, studying an analog of the pesticide could help explain the mechanism of action of others similar pesticides, as well as warn of the dangers