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Pesticides Use Impacts |
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Since the Industrial Revolution, new technology has enabled us to cultivate more food needs in line with the exponential growth of the planet population, but this comes at cost, cost of the negative impacts of pesticide use on human health, food safety, living organisms, natural systems, climate change and degradation of agricultural land.
Worldwide, about 3 billion kg of pesticides is applied to cropland each year at a cost of about 45 billion per year and although insecticides are designed to attack weeds (herbicides), insect pests (insecticide), crop fungus (fungicide) they also affect nontarget species including humans. For humans, pesticides are allergens, poisonings, and carcinogens, they cause irritation of the skin or eyes, coughing lacrimation. Poisoning with systemic effects, worldwide, the application of 3 million metric tons of pesticides results in more than 26 million cases of nonfatal poisoning and About 90% of all fungicides are carcinogenic and studies shown that exposure to certain pesticides significantly increases the risk of cancer. Pesticides are also dangerous to animals, frogs are increasingly exposed to pesticides in ponds and in the bodies of insects that they eat, this can make them more vulnerable to bacterial, viral and fungal diseases, and according to the U.S fish and wildlife service, pesticides kill about one-fifth of the European honey bee and here I mention that organic honey in Cuba becomes a key agricultural export since Cuba was unable to afford pesticides due to a lack of foreign exchange before 1991.Certain pesticides end up in groundwater and cause its contamination and they are washed also into aquatic systems causing fishery loss. A study of evaluation of pesticides residues in fruits and vegetables from Algeria shows that 57.5% of fruits and vegetables samples collected from Algerian markets contained at least 1 pesticide residue. Because of pesticide resistance and their health risks, agricultural scientists are increasingly battling pests and weeds with organisms that eat or infect them, this strategy is called: "Biocontrol". An example of biocontrol is the release of parasitic wasps to control aphids which cause huge damage to plants, the parasitic wasp lays eggs in aphids which die when the eggs come out and the young wasps start to grow. Refs: - David Pimentel, H. Acquay, M. Biltonen, P. Rice, M. Silva, J. Nelson, V. Lipner, S. Giordano, A. Horowitz, and M. D'Amore.: 1993, 'Assessment of environmental and economic impacts of pesticide use'. - Mebdoua, S. Lazali, M. Ounane, SM. Tellah, S. Nabi, F. Ounane, G.: 2017, ' Evaluation of pesticides residues in fruits and vegetables from Algeria'. - Pesticides (Presentation), WHO. - BIOCOMES, http://www.biocomes.eu |
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2 Comments
Hi, Abdessamad! Mentor Stephanie already gave you specific comments that I also think of :) We really do need proper alternatives to solve harmful effects of using chemical pesticides. Biocontrol strategy is already progressed in some regions but it doesn't guarantee sufficient agricultural production compared to established chemical pesticides which are more broadly used until now. We should steadily be interested in problems that agriculture industry encounter in recent years because they are highly related to the survival of humans in the future. Thanks for your well-written report!
Posted 06-10-2017 02:48
Hi, Abdessamad! Thank you for your report on pesticides. The harms of pesticides to human health and the environment were very well-explained and detailed. The part about the decrease in bee population especially drew my attention, because bees are critical to the survival of the majority of plants on Earth. This means excessive usage of pesticides can eventually lead to extinction altogether of many plant species. This is pretty ironic, as pesticides are mainly used to increase the productivity of plants. A safe alternative to conventional pesticides is needed, to specifically restrain only the harmful pests and not affect other species. The 'biocontrol' strategy that you've introduced is one of the most well-known alternatives to chemical pesticides. Although this method costs more and may be less convenient, it can eliminate the need to spray poisonous chemicals and is very safe. Great work!
Posted 03-10-2017 12:25