Although remarkably fecund, horseshoes are slow to mature and don't reproduce until about age 10. That fact, coupled with the eelers' preference for female crabs, means it may take years for their numbers to recover. Ironically, the crab is becoming imperiled just as scientists are fully realizing its potential for improving human health. The horseshoe crab's unique blue blood is the world's only source of a compound called limulus amoebocyte lysate, which is used widely to test for bacterial contaminants in drugs. Students of the crab have little doubt that people could learn still more from a creature that is so biologically successful as to become virtually frozen in time.
Tolerances are the allowable pesticide residues in raw and processed food.
Under the schedule, the Agency will place the highest priority on those chemicals that appear to pose the greatest health risks. This tolerance reassessment process will assure that all pesticides on foods meet new safety standards that are especially protective for infants and children. The riskiest pesticides assessed in the first group include those used in foods most eaten by children. There are 10,000 tolerances for about 470 pesticides or high hazard inert ingredients. Another 826 tolerance exemptions for inert ingredients will also be reviewed.