Many people are concerned about harmful effects of pesticides on the environment, their animals and plants, and themselves. To better understand the topic at hand, a short explanation of toxicology is in order. Toxicity and hazard are not the same thing.
Hazard thus includes both toxicity and the chance of exposure to a toxic amount of a product.
An oral dose of 400 milligrams of ordinary table salt per kilogram of body weight can make a person violently ill. Every year about 60 people die from aspirin overdose. It is the dosage that determines the poison. The insecticides used by the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District are among the insecticides least hazardous to humans. They may be used on food crops at rates much higher than are used for mosquito control.