The capacity of a pesticide to cause short-term or long-term injury is referred to as its:

• A. Toxicity
• B. Persistence
• C. Volatility
• D. Selectivity

Answer: (A)

Toxicity is the capacity of a pesticide to cause harm to living organisms, whether from a single exposure or from repeated, long-term exposure. Acute toxicity refers to short-term effects that happen soon after exposure, while chronic toxicity covers injuries that develop over time with ongoing exposure. The level of toxicity depends on the dose and the route of exposure (for example, ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact), as well as characteristics of the exposed organism such as species, age, and health. A common way to express this hazard is by measures like LD50, where a lower LD50 means a more toxic substance.

Persistence, volatility, and selectivity describe different properties: persistence is how long the chemical remains active in the environment, volatility is how readily it becomes a vapor and can disperse, and selectivity is about targeting pests more than non-target organisms. These factors influence exposure and safety, but they are not the term for the inherent capacity to cause injury—that is toxicity.