7092

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7092
• Author: Eisler, R.
• Title: Arsenic Hazards to Fish, Wildlife, and Invertebrates
• USFW Year: 1988.
• USFW - Doc Type: A Synoptic Review.
• Copyright Material: NO

has been applied widely as a soil sterilant. Sodium arsenite has been used
for aquatic weed control, as a defoliant to kill potato vines before tuber
harvest, as a weed killer along roadsides and railroad rights-of-way, and for
control of crabgrass (Digitaria sanguinalis). Calcium arsenates have been
applied to cotton and tobacco fields to protect against the boll weevil
(Anthonomus randis) and other insects. Lead arsenate has been used to
control insect pests of fruit trees, and for many years was the only
insecticide that controlled the codling moth (Carpocapsa pomonella) in apple
orchards and the horn worm larva (Sphyngidae) on tobacco. Much smaller
quantities of lead arsenate are now used in orchards because fruit growers
rely primarily on carbamate and organophosphorus compounds to control insect
pests; however, lead arsenate is still being used by some growers to protect
orchards from certain chewing insects. The use of inorganic arsenicals has
decreased in recent years due to the banning of sodium arsenite and some other
arsenicals for most purposes, although they continue to be used on golf greens
and fairways in certain areas to control annual bluegrass (Poa annua). In
recent decades, inorganic arsenicals have been replaced by organoarsenicals
for herbicidal application, and by carbamate and organophosphorus compounds
for insect control (Woolson 1975). By the mid-1950's, organoarsenicals were
used extensively as desiccants, defoliants, and herbicides (NRCC 1978).
Organoarsenicals marketed in agriculture today, which are used primarily for
herbicidal application, include cacodylic acid (also known as dimethylarsinic
acid) and its salts--monosodium and disodium methanearsonate (Woolson 1975;
NAS 1977). Organoarsenicals are used as selective herbicides for weedy grasses
in turf, and around cotton and noncrop areas for weed control; at least 1.8
million ha (4.4 million acres) have been treated with more than 8,000 tons of
organoarsenicals (NAS 1977). In 1945, it was discovered that one
organoarsenical (3-nitro-4 hydroxyphenyl arsonic acid) controlled coccidiosis
and promoted growth in domestic chickens (Woolson 1975). Since that time,
other substituted phenylarsonic acids have been shown to have both therapeutic
and growth promoting properties as feed additives for poultry and swine (Sus
spp.), and are used for this purpose today under existing regulations (Woolson
1975; NAS 1977)--although the use of arsenicals in poultry food was banned in
France in 1959 (NRCC 1978).
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