Pesticides : The Environment And Its Effects On The Environment

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

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

Even if an agricultural worker isn't seriously affected by the effects pesticide losses from hospitalized people, treatment, lost work and fatalities amasses to a total of $1.2 billion annually (Pimentel). Additionally, the development of Parkinson's and people with higher concentrations of pesticides had strong links connecting each other. These links would show that the toxic pesticides would result in a neurodegenerative disease, such Parkinson's (Kamel). Although considered a rare case, the increase in the disease's prevalence would add to the $25 billion that the disease already costs the United States in treatment, social security payments and lost income from inability to work ("Statistics on

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

When pesticides enter the food chain they cause damage to the DNA and disrupts hormones in humans. The prevalence of cancer in farmers and their families is more often than in general population because they are more exposed to pesticides during farming. “Studies by the National Cancer Institute found that American farmers, who in most respects are healthier than the population at large, had startling incidences of leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and many other forms of cancer” (The Problem with Pesticides, n.d. para 9). Studies also point towards a strong connection between the pesticide exposure during pregnancy and childhood to the increased risk of cancer in children. Furthermore, “ Results of a family based, “case-control” study support a relationship between exposure to pesticides and the development of Parkinson’s disease” (Reuters Health, 2008). Investigations have revealed a higher incidence of Parkinson’s disease in families with no history of Parkinson’s pointing towards the role of pesticides and their neurological impact. In addition, fetal deaths and birth defects have also been associated to the role of pesticide exposure. Pesticide exposure has been found responsible for reduced fertility in males. Owing to

DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane) was one of the most commonly used pesticides during the mid-1900's. This chemical was found to be effective in killing mosquitoes, thus stopping malaria epidemics, and was also useful against farm pests. However, mosquitoes often became resistant to this unnatural chemical after a generation or so of selective breeding. In fact, this pesticide did much more than simply getting rid of the insects pestering man. The most deadly feature of DDT was its ability to move through the food chain at a deadly pace.

The pesticide industry rose to fame in the period of World War II where numerous chemicals being used in warfare and they were found with capabilities of killing insects. Insects were being used as experiments while testing the chemicals that were being used to kill other humans. In the middle of 1940, because of the poisonous nature of some pesticides, though still effective and good played a very great role towards agriculture, the federal government managed to respond by initiating some few regulatory rules. This paper is aimed at analyzing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that are used in pesticides, it will also provide some threats that pesticides pose on the environment’s well-being, as well as human’s, and will

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.

A study was conducted in July of 2007 by the researchers of Public Health Institute, the California Department of Health Services, and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. The subject of the study was children born from mothers who had been exposed to organochlorine pesticides. It was found that these children are at a much higher risk of developing disorders on the autism spectrum than children of other mothers. The risk was estimated to be at least six times higher (“The Problem”). In addition to this, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry published a long term study in 2009 that focused on children living in homes where the average supply of grocery foods were products that were exposed to pesticides. These adolescents were then compared to children who lived in residences without exposure to pesticides.

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

Although a vast increase has been seen in the enactment of pesticide legislation worldwide, it remains absent in approximately a quarter of countries in Africa and the Southeast Asian region . Where present, regulations often lack comprehensiveness and the capacity to enforce these effectively. Conversely, developed nations are increasingly implementing more stringent legislation.

Although there are given benefits to the use of GMOs for crop production, such as the longer lasting produce, easier farming, and more appealing crops. We also see a negative affect to the ways in which GMOs can affect the health of an individual. The use of pesticides to kill off any insect that would instead be eating the crops, have immune qualities and thus the dosages of these pesticide are being increased more every season. An example of how pesticides are used in farming today is with the growth of corn. Farmers are using GMOs to insecticide the sweet corn that would then kill the insect interacting with the corn in order to keep the production at a high. If they didn’t use these chemicals on the sweet corn, there ability to use

Pesticides are prevalent in many societies, they are used on crops to ward off insects and other nuisances, in homes to kill rodents, and in gardens to remove weeds. It is interesting that humans are continuously exposed to chemicals that are literally used to kill other living things. Despite the fact that many studies have shown that certain chemicals in pesticides have adverse side effects, pesticide use remains so common place that most people are exposed to pesticides on an almost daily basis. There are many classes of pesticides, like organophosphates, carbamates, and pyrethroids, and each class of pesticides effects humans differently. In the empirical article “Organophosphorous pesticide exposures and sperm quality,” Melissa Perry, et al. look at the association between urinary organophospophorous (OP) pesticide metabolites and the concentration and motility of sperm.

Fertilizer and pesticide usage has increased dramatically worldwide, especially in China. Twenty years of uncontrolled economic development have created serious, chronic air and water pollution. In order to support China’s growing population, the country has drastically increased its usage of fertilizers and pesticides in the agricultural sector. China consumes around a third of global fertilizers, with rapid growth in use in recent years, driven largely by higher fruit and vegetable production. Excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides threatens both public health and agricultural productivity. Many farmers choose to use chemicals to keep weeds and pests from destroying their crops while adding more nutrients to the soil. Yet such benefits do not come without environmental costs--namely the pesticide pollution of China’s streams, rivers, lakes, and even coastal areas, as these toxic chemicals runoff into nearby waterways, contaminating the food, drinking water causing massive health problems.

Out of cereal? Need a new t-shirt? Craving some sugar? Immediately, our minds think that it’s time for a shopping trip. But where do the malls and supermarkets get their goods from? Wheat, cotton, sugarcane, and rice are a few of the major exports from India’s $39 billion dollar agriculture industry (Flake 2014). However, this high output of crops does not come without a cost. Pesticides provide economic benefits by enhancing the yield of food as well as preventing vector-borne diseases, but they do so at a risk to the health of India’s farmers. Unfortunately, the chemical properties of pesticides that make them effective in their purpose of destroying the insects and pests that feed on crops are the same chemical properties that have a negative effect on human health. Agriculture accounts for about 50% of India’s workforce, yet many of these laborers are in contact with potentially toxic chemicals day after day with little effort to minimize their exposure risks (Flake, 2014). This issue does not only concern India’s farmers, but also has an impact on a global scale. Worldwide consumption of India’s crops that are produced from excessive or harmful pesticide usage and environmental consequences make this a problem that everyone should be aware of.