Pesticides – Toxic Chemicals Against Pests and Humans

 

Hey Foodies, let’s take a look at another chemical that is often used in agriculture, pesticides! Pesticides are chemicals that are used to eradicate pests, to increase the rate of food production as its primary purpose. The majority of pesticides used are often by farmers, in the forms of pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides, to remove unwanted pests, weeds, and fungus. 

 

How do Pesticides cause pollution?

Pesticides contribute to pollution in three different forms, air, water, and soil. During the application of pesticides, research has shown that often, only half of the pesticides reaches the insects and weeds. As such, the remainder of the pesticides is often either swept up into the air by the wind as persistent organic pollutants (POP). Also, pesticides can move through the soil layers, causing soil toxicity and pollution, while infiltrating into groundwater sources and moving through surface water, causing water pollution (Hill, 2010)

 

Why is Pesticide Pollution a problem?

The use of pesticides creates an array of problems, especially to exposure groups such as animals and humans. Depending on the type of pesticide, the toxicity impact changes between stakeholders, for instance, insecticides are usually more toxic to humans and animals compared to herbicides (SDWF, 2016). As such, when water is polluted by pesticides, it reduces the water quality and causes the water to be unsuitable for consumption. In the case where the water is consumed, the toxins from pesticides can pose a huge health risk, causing chronic illnesses to develop (Hill, 2010).

 

Also, the use of pesticides can unintendedly kill off species that are not pests or weeds. Organisms such as pollinating insects and birds, often die off when they are exposed to pesticides, even though they are not the intended targets for the use of pesticides. This can cause changes to the immune systems of animals and damage the ecosystems in the long run (Hill,2010). Furthermore, this unintended kill can become worsened if the targeted insects become more immune to the pesticides involved. This process can be further aggravated when these insects reproduce and pass on their immunity to pesticides to offsprings (Michigan State University. Extension, 2002). As such, more pesticides need to be used to kill these pests, which in turn leads to higher toxicity in the region, which then increases immunity levels against pesticides leading to a vicious cycle that causes mass die-off of local wildlife.

 

Case Study: Tanzania (Elibariki & Maguta, 2017)

The use of pesticides in Tanzania provides us an insight into how a lesser developed country manages their usage of pesticides. Pesticide pollution in Tanzania often comes in the form of water and soil pollution, where large amounts of pesticides are often used, often improperly due to a lack of pesticide handling knowledge. As such, pesticides and it’s equivalents have been detected in nearby rivers and water bodies, where these pesticides serve as pollutants to degrade the water quality. This is especially alarming considering that Tanzania is a less developed country, with low income amongst farmers. As such, these farmers often do not have a choice with their water sources, even though they are contaminated. Therefore, increasing the risk of exposing themselves to pesticide toxicity, leading to increased health risks.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, the use of pesticides to improve food production might be a requirement especially to cope with the world’s growing population. However, there is a need to educate and change the mindset of farmers, especially in less developed countries. Alternatively, we should also consider the use of alternatives, such as bug resistant breeds of plants. Therefore reducing our dependence on pesticides. However, pesticides will always be the main source of eradication of pests, and the primary focus should still be to educate on the use and impacts of pesticides on pollution and especially on human health. 

 

That’s it for today, See you soon in the next post!

 

Detective Out,

Wen Hong

References

Elibariki, R., & Maguta, M. M. (2017). Status of pesticide pollution in Tanzania – A review. Chemosphere, 178, 154-164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.03.036

Hill, M. K. (2010). Understanding environmental pollution. Cambridge University Press.

Michigan State University. Extension. (2002). Fruit crop ecology and management.

SDWF. (2016, December 11). Pesticides and water pollution — Safe Drinking Water Foundation. Safe Drinking Water Foundation. https://www.safewater.org/fact-sheets-1/2017/1/23/pesticides

Pictures obtained from:

https://thelogicalindian.com/news/pesticide-spray-farmers-died-lost-eyesight/