Chemistry in Everyday Life
Fall 2000 & Spring 2001
William P. Green



 
 
Pesticide Usage
United States - 2000 - by compound type
 million lbs
%
Conventional Pesticides
970
21
Pesticidal Oils, etc
260
6
Wood Preservatives
660
14
Specialty Biocides
270
6
Chlorine
2,460
53
Total Pesticide Use  4.34 billion lbs
Pesticide Usage
United States - 2000 - by user group

 
Group million lbs % pesticide use*
Agricultural
958
77
Commercial and Industrial
151
12
Home and Garden
136
11
*Pesticide use in this table is only for conventional pesticides and pesticidal oils, the first two categories (rows) in the table at the left.

However, it seems that agriculture uses a lot of pesticides, but was is the dosage concentration over a large area, such as the state.  Here is current land use in the state (% only--if you want numerical values, the area of the state is 66,351 square miles):
 
Croplands
19%
Forestry
53%
Cities
2%
Livestock
18%
Parks
5%
Other
3%
Source:  Washington's Water Quality Plan to Control Nonpoint Pollution, April, 2000, Ecology Publication 99-26

Eventhough three times as much pesticides are used for agriculture as for all other uses (commercial, industrial, and home and garden), these other uses occurs mostly in cities over a land are that is 1/18th of that devoted to agriculture.  That means about six times the amount of pesticides are applied per acre in the cities than on agricultural lands.

(By my calculation, agricultural lands receive about 61 lbs/acre, and just using the home and garden number in cities yields 160 lbs/acre on residential land.)