Pesticide Use in America Over Time Pesticides are not new. Crops have always been subject to pests and diseases as well as other natural occurrences such as bad weather. In earlier times people had no access to machines and other inventions to make farming more efficient. They faced famine if crop yields were weak multiple years in a row. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) writes that the first recorded use of pesticides was 4500 years ago by the Sumerians. Mr. Giotto, a history teacher at Bay Trail Middle school describes them as “the first people to migrate Mesopotamia, they created a great civilization.”. They used sulphur compounds as a natural pesticide, and this could be why they were so great in the first …show more content…
The website on Safe Chemical Policy protest current policies on pesticides as too strict, and they have some valid points. They point to the cost and time to pay registration fees and to submit data. While the time spent is perhaps unavoidable if companies are committed to obtaining accurate data, large fees for those doing the right thing by registering their product to ensure that it is safe is counterintuitive. Large fees serve to dissuade those who genuinely care about the wellbeing of their farm workers and customers, and such fees only encourage companies to seek out loopholes to get their product pass. The Safe Chemical Policy group also reveal that the registering process can take from 9 to 10 years. This may mean that the EPA and the agencies that also have a role in regulating pesticides are overloaded. So while pesticide use must be more regulated to stop harmful pesticides from making it to the market, and recalling those that are dangerous, there must also be reform to unneeded policies that only serve to inhibit those companies with good intentions. These changes will most likely have to come from conscientious people such as you and me. Changes may come from the federal or state governments, but it is unlikely that such reform will take place without popular support. At the present most people seem to care more about other issues which results in pesticide regulations being relegated to the sidelines. This may prove dangerous as pesticides are a worldwide danger that affect quite literally everyone, and may have more impact than we see today such as in the case of earlier pesticide
However, agriculture is the central issue. While pesticides are being used to keep crops alive, a benefit to farmers, the natural ecosystem is not exactly experiencing the same effect; the ecosystem is being destroyed. An effective way agriculturists can improve on decreasing the amount of pesticides is to use continuous production, where it is reusing the fields, without wasting and hurting them.
To understand pesticides, we must look at the facts about them. According to the EPA, pesticides are chemicals specifically designed and sold to prevent, destroy, or repel pests from garden, greenhouses, fields, and orchards (Learn About Chemicals Around Your House). Charlotte Gerber’s article, How Do Pesticides Kill Bugs, explained that pesticides targets insects and kills them by attacking the nervous system and then when the muscles are over-stimulated, this will lead to paralysis and death. The effect of the organophosphates that cause that in pesticides was discovered in the 1930's during World War II. They were used in the creation of nerve gas, which was used in chemical warfare. When used in lethal dosages for humans, organophosphates cause extreme excitability, convulsions, paralysis and in most cases, death (Gerber). According to Effects of Pesticides on Human Health, The World Health Organization estimates that there are 3 million cases of pesticide poisoning each year and up to 220,000 deaths, primarily in developing countries (Lah and Glibert 2011). Children, and any other young and developing organisms, are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of pesticides. Even very low levels of exposure during development may have adverse health effects. Exposure can even lead to neurological health effects such as memory loss, loss of
Most people know of the existence of pesticides but many of them also do not have to use them nor do they know
In the early 1940’s, a new technology emerged that was able to successfully combat crop-damaging and disease-carrying insects. A new age of synthetic chemical pesticides use arose. After their impressive success in fighting deadly insect-borne diseases during World War II, pesticides were used widely to combat insect pests for agriculture and public health. Few people challenged the benefits of the new scientific and technological products and many embraced pesticide use with enthusiasm. Despite its success, doubts about pesticide use began to appear a decade later in the 1950’s, when the government began a vigorous pesticide campaign across the country against insect pests. Scientists began reporting heavy losses of avian and
It has been a prime location for studies to be conducted by health organizations to see if there are any links to the pesticide usage occurring along with people living in the vicinity of where it is being used. ARTICLE PESTICDES STUDY (Kehoe) The study correlates a link between certain chemicals that are used in the manufacturing of pesticides and these chemical ORGANOCHLORINES to Alzheimer’s disease along with many autism related defects between children. Children are who we try to keep safe as they are the young and will be our future. Pregnant women living in pesticide applied areas were more likely to have a child with birth defects as the chemicals are absorbed through the air and can reach the fetus via the bloodstream. These are also the most susceptible to these chemicals being used by farmers and the by the produce they
There are many things that enter our waterways that we have to clean out. One of the worst things is pesticides. They not only contaminate our water, but they are harmful to animals. It enters our water sources by seeping through the soil to groundwater or entering streams as surface run-off. Farmers and other workers try to keep our water safe from pesticides, but it is a very hard and stressful job. Let’s take a look at the ways that pesticides enter our water and also some possible solutions for this problem.
This scholarly text book, part of a series called Current Controversies, is composed of primary sources taken from a diversity of informational categories including books, newspapers, periodicals, international government documents, and the publications of organizations. The authors in this series examine some of the issues that typical arise in the debate about pesticides, including whether they are detrimental to human health, animals and the environment, whether they are essential to curtailing international hunger, and what the future of pesticides might be. This book widely mirrors the mosaic of opinions in both parts of the debate regarding the benefits and harmful effects
Humans have a tendency to afflict conflict and havok away from their own living quarters in order to reduce casualties in whatever the conflict may be so that their homeland remains pure and untouched. Given that America has one of strictest health and clean up regulations in the world they tend to follow the Chinese proverb: “the frog does not drink from the pond in which it lives.” The pond that is being talked about here is a nation’s natural resources that are necessary for survival. Instead of ravaging their own land and extract it, America tends to seek out other countries that are able to perform methods of growing crops that would otherwise be illegal in America. Because of America’s role in the world, they are able to expose other countries to ravage their own resources instead of their own.
Procedural History: Under the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Federal Insecticides, Fungicides, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), manufacturers were required to register their pesticides. EPA had a “me-too” process that allowed for the pesticide equivalent of generic drugs. Monsanto Corporation sued because EPA was making them publicize trade secrets, which they claimed was a taking. Congress reiterated in Section 3(c)(1)(D)(ii) of FIFRA that EPA should make administrative decisions about how much money these manufacturers would get for damages from loss of their trade secrets. Union Carbide sued because they felt that the decisions should be made by the judicial court, not an administrative agency. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York held that the claims challenging the arbitration provisions were ripe for decision and that those provisions violated Article III. Standing was approved for all appellants, who took a direct appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Federal regulation of pesticides in the United States has evolved from two pieces of legislation enacted around the turn of the century: the Federal Insecticide Act of 1910 and the Federal Food and Drugs Act of 1906 (Toth, 1996). In 1910, the Federal Government first started to regulate pesticides with the passing of the Insecticide Act of 1910. In 1947, Congress broadened the role of the U.S. Government by passing the first Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act of 1947 (FIFRA) . The 1972 amendments, under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a federal agency, controls the sale, distribution, and application of pesticides through the Administrator of EPA.
The Environmental Encyclopedia informs that during the Vietnam War, “The U.S. Air Force broadcast-sprayed herbicides to deprive their enemy of food production and forest cover” (“Herbicide”). If pesticides can be used to destroy enemy crops and forest, it is clear how toxic they can be. Herbicides used in our gardens, on our farmlands, can be a weapon of war. One of the most notable instances of pesticides used as a weapon were the agent mixtures, in the previously mentioned Vietnam War. Agent Orange was the most commonly used and the most effective mixture of herbicide and defoliate. According to HISTORY.com, it’s reported that during the war, “Some 400,000 people were killed or maimed as a result of exposure to herbicides like Agent Orange” (History.com). Pesticides killed thousands of people in the war, also causing birth defects and diseases such as cancer in the exposed. The mixture of chemicals may have been dumped onto enemy territory in larger amounts than the average person would use, but the fact that pesticides can cause this much damage should be enlightening. Farmers still find themselves with cancer, children still have birth defects, and wildlife and environments still suffers from pesticides utilized by people using far less than in war and not intending to cause harm. For such toxins to be released intentionally into our environment, toxins that are used as weapons of war, speaks to our
Weeds – the cause of misery and a curse to gardeners everywhere, and the sooner they are gone the better. Fortunately, the herbicide Roundup takes on their robust and bothersome growth and quickly decimates their population, which allows more time for outdoor enjoyment than warring with weeds. Wherever you have unwanted growth, Roundup makes a product to tackle the crisis and with most, visible results are obvious in just a few hours after applying.
Bolivia has doubled the amount of pesticides it imports over the past five years (Langman). Of all the pesticides Bolivia imports inside the country, 30% of it is contraband that is smuggled in illegally (Langman). According to studies done by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, developing countries use 20% of pesticides purchased on the global market, but have about 99% of all farmers who get poisoned by pesticides or insecticides (Langman). There are about 70,000 yearly poisonings that could possibly lead to death or have long term illness. Agribusiness companies such as Monsanto produce pesticides which are tested and approved by government entities before they are used. The underlying problem in this particular case is the use of cheap and toxic pesticides by inexperienced farmers without proper precaution over their personal health. The profitability to be made in the agricultural industry, especially that of GM crops in developing nations is so high farmers are willing to seek maximum profit by taking shortcuts and purchasing illegal pesticides so they can maximize
The good about pesticides is that it sometimes cure people like medicines. Sometimes it harms people to get sick again. They spray pesticides all day in the feild to make insects go away, and good thing about pesticides is that they can kill insects around them too. Some people are pretty much alergic to pesticides when they smell flower they get alergic to it. I think we should spray al lot's of pesticides because people get sick out of it. These is sometype of program that spraying it on their feild. They are adding pesticides into medicines. They use pesticides on plants, and it kills the animals who eat the plants with the pesticides because they will get that type of infection. Number of people die because of pesticides it is bad for them.
One concern about pesticides and herbicide usage is the amount of residues left on the end product of crops sprayed with the chemicals, and their effects on human health. (Williamson, 2007, p. 184). However, these effects are closely tested and levels are strictly regulated to ensure there is no danger from possible pesticide residues. Since 1910, many rules, regulations, and agencies have been formed to monitor the safety of the pesticides and herbicides used in conventional farming. These chemicals must meet specific safety standards in order to be registered for use, and regulations on levels of each product safe for use are also put in place. (Tafel et al.,2007, p.184). All pesticides are rigorously examined to ensure they have no significant effects on human health, or the environment. The residues in the food chain are closely monitored, and regularly tested, to ensure they are below legal limits. In a recent survey of residues