The role of the laboratory in pesticide management

The chemical laboratory plays a pivotal role in pesticide management. Without the ability to identify and measure the chemicals, it is difficult to formulate, assess residues, or monitor for contamination. The chemistry laboratory is capable of providing information on environmental behavior, persistence, hazards and residues. There are many methods of analyses, but the most commonly employed are thin-layer chromatography, gas chromatography and liquid chromatography. Thin-layer chromatography is cheap, rapid and easy to learn. It offers many advantages where resources are scarce and the ultimate in sensitivity are not required. A laboratory equipped with gas chromatography and other instruments can serve as a backup for many of the primary laboratories using simpler analyses (AU)