PESTICIDES

 In the ``Issues in Focus'' series, Billings describes the origins and uses of pesticides; problems resulting from their residues; national and international regulatory agencies; and suggestions for a safer future. The fact that there are five national agencies and four international organizations charged with protecting the food supply is a measure of how complicated this topic is. The presentation here is also cluttered with undigested facts and minutia, making it even more difficult to sort out the more important ideas and concepts--included, for instance, are a table from the 1990 New England Apple Spray Guide (with average temperatures and hours of wet foliage necessary for apple scab leaf infection) and a list of the eight states from which contaminated milk samples were recalled due to a 1986 heptachlor contamination. Chapter notes, containing many references to professional journals, are also unfootnoted. A title on an important issue, then, that ends up out of focus. List of abbreviations; index. Photos not seen. (Nonfiction. 12+)