Pesticides became common after the second World War as part of the war effort was scientific research into a way to end hunger, i.e. pesticides and the increasing productivity and availability of food production with their help. Currently an estimated 3.2 million tons of pesticides are used each year.

I think everyone would agree that it would not be a good idea to put pesticides in a saltshaker and add them to our food at the table. But there is little agreement when it comes to their use in agriculture. How much gets into our food? What are the effects on our health? On the environment? Is there a safer alternative?

Let me try to answer these questions to the best of my ability using various resources.

Pesticides: Are they really essential to farming
There are a number of studies where organic farming practices produced greater yields than conventional methods. There are evidences that organic crops are more resilient in adverse conditions like droughts, and that good-practice organic systems produce higher yields in traditional smallholder farm settings.

Recent advances in organic farming techniques are very encouraging, and anything that reduces the need for pesticides sounds like a good idea. But it remains to be seen whether the techniques can be implemented everywhere, whether 'industrialized' large-scale organic farming can adopt them, and whether they are really the most practical way to increase yields and improve safety. It may be possible for farmers to eschew pesticides but is it feasible on a large scale, and is it really preferable to judicious use of pesticides following best practices and evidence-based guidelines?

Transport of Agricultural Pesticides

Pesticides can be transported to humans or other organisms in a variety of ways. It is near to impossible for the pesticide to only affect its targeted crop.

-Wind is one transportation method. The wind picks up the pesticides and can blow them onto other farms or into rivers.

-It can be absorbed into the soil and then taken up by other organisms or can contaminate the surface and groundwater that run over/through it.

- Pesticides are then absorbed by the plants which is detrimental to the growth of the plants.

- That which is not absorbed usually remains on the surface and flows into streams as surface runoff. It is dissolved into the water and then can be taken in by plants and animals. The streams would then be considered a reservoir of pesticides with a relatively high abundance level.

Bioavailability

Pesticides frequently enter the world's surface and groundwater through either point source (direct locations where excess pesticides spill, or non-point sources, where the pesticides enter the streams through wind flow, precipitation, runoff, and leaching. These pesticides can accumulate in a surface water source such as a lake, stream, or pond, they can also leach down and become integrated into the groundwater reserves such as reservoirs.

Pesticides enter the food chain through the direct application of the substance to the plants themselves by humans. Once they are absorbed by the plants or animals which eat the plants they become residue. There are maximum residue levels for crops and animals. They can also be taken in when an organism takes in the water which contains the runoff and dissolved pesticides. This can be further extended to the human who eats the fish. An easier way for humans to ingest pesticides is directly through contaminated drinking water from those polluted streams.

Impacts on Human Health

An estimated 2.2 million people are at risk due to exposure from agricultural pesticides, with the majority of this population being locating in developing nations.

Pesticides can enter the human body through inhalation, ingestion, or by dermal penetration through the skin. Those who work with agricultural pesticides are the most at risk if they are not properly dressed or if there are broken and leaking equipment. The majority of average citizens who are effected by the pesticides intake the pesticide through consumption of a food that was been contaminated with a pesticide.

Pesticides cause headaches, blurred vision, vomiting, abdominal pain, suppress the immune system, lead to blood and liver diseases, depression, asthma, and nerve damage. The issue with these effects is that they may wait appear until a while after being ingested so tracing the symptoms back to the pesticide can prove to be quite difficult. Many of the symptoms can be mistaken for the flu and therefore not properly treated. The inactive ingredients such as chloroform can also cause serious risks to the liver and nervous system. These effects can also be experienced by the animals living around the streams where the pesticides accumulate. The pesticides bioaccumulate within the animals as they are not easily soluble, as that animal is eaten by another animal the pesticide then biomagnifies and obtains an even higher concentration as it moves further up the food chain.

Examples or incidents of pesticides adverse impacts:

In 1958, all members of the family of a local chief who is a prominent cocoa farmer at Okebode in southwestern Nigeria were hospitalized after eating a leaf vegetable undergrowth of a cocoa farm that was earlier sprayed by lindane.

In 2004, carbofuran pesticide residues found on several batches of noodles manufactured in Nigeria may have resulted in 23 reported cases of vomiting and one death".

Recent scandal of contaminated eggs in Europe.

Millions of eggs were recalled from shops and warehouses in Germany and the Netherlands and being blocked from sale in Belgium after some were found to contain high levels of a toxic insecticide banned from use in the production of food for human consumption. Tests of chicken droppings, blood and eggs showed high levels of the insecticide fipronil, a common ingredient in veterinary products for getting rid of fleas, lice and ticks, but banned from being used to treat animals destined for human consumption. Fipronil is a toxic insecticide. Fipronil is an insecticide that - in an ideal world - should never find its way into a chicken coop. But it somehow got mixed up with a cleaning agent and sanitiser at some poultry farms. The insecticide is often used as the active ingredient in flea control products, as well as controlling pests on golf courses.

About 180 Dutch farms were temporarily shut down and a criminal investigation was launched.

Belgian prosecutors examined the client list of two companies in Flanders specialising in the production and supply of anti-lice agents to Dutch and Belgian farms, among others. It is feared the illegal substance was mixed with an insecticide used legally in the keeping of chickens to improve its effectiveness. The illegal mix had been used on farms in the Netherlands for more than a year.

The extent of the scandal has since grown.

Around a million eggs destined for Germany were recalled from the border with the Netherlands.

As per reports, 2.9m eggs from companies believed to have used the fipronil anti-lice agent were delivered to Germany before 22 July, when exports were blocked, although many of them remained in packing stations.

The Netherlands has almost 1,000 lay hen factory farms producing 11bn eggs a year, of which more than half are exported, mainly to Germany.

British food safety inspectors were trying to trace 21,000 eggs imported from affected farms in the Netherlands between March and June 2017.

Most of the contaminate egss would have gone into the processed food industry. It will go into bakery, where they are buying a lot of powdered egg. If they are sold as shelled eggs they are most likely just going into a sandwich factory somewhere.

Millions of eggs were recalled from shops and warehouses in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany in recent weeks after some were found to contain high levels of the insecticide fipronil, a common ingredient in veterinary products for getting rid of fleas, lice and ticks. It is banned from being used to treat animals destined for human consumption.

The source of the contamination appears to be a supplier of insecticide in Belgium. The supplier is alleged to have mixed legal and illegal substances to improve the effectiveness of its product.

Criminal investigations have been launched in the Netherlands and Belgium, where authorities are facing questions over their conduct, having learned of the contamination in June.

Products from 57 Belgian egg producers – about a quarter of the country's producers – had been blocked as a preventative measure.

In Germany, where the average person consumes five eggs a week, almost every state has reported eggs containing fipronil. About 30% of eggs sold in Germany are imported from the Netherlands.

The Dutch farming organisation LTO said several million hens in the Netherlands may need to be culled at 150 companies 300,000 had already been killed. A million hens in Germany face slaughter. The Dutch poultry industry has warned that it faces being shut down by the crisis.

This is another example of our broken food system doing untold harm to our health, and that what is needed is a diet of purely locally sourced organic food, freshly made at home.

What risks does Fipronil pose?

When consumed in large quantities it is considered 'moderately hazardous', according to the World Health Organization. It can be dangerous to the kidneys, liver and thyroid glands. But the Food Standards Agency says the risks are low and the decision to withdraw affected products is based on fipronil not being authorised for use in food-producing animals, rather than safety concerns.

Fipronil is a "highly toxic" pesticide which could be harmful if ingested but you'd need to have eaten a very large quantity of contaminated eggs for that to happen.

Conclusion

Pesticides are meant to harm weeds and insects, but they are also harming us. They are , at times, rightly termed as 'poisons'. Safe pesticides is a myth. Pesticides are either restricted or unclassified. Restricted means it can cause harm to humans or the environment. Unclassified refers to all other pesticides.

Pesticides can be incredibly beneficial and have most certainly increased food production. They were of great importance in saving the United States' potato crops during the 1940's from insect and fungal pests, as well as controlling the boll weevil in El Salvador in 1953.

Yet many times their detrimental effects outweigh the positive ones. Pesticides can be extremely hazardous to the human body and other living organisms, as they are designed to be a poison.

Pesticides are wasted in environments where the farmer has little knowledge or care for the detrimental effects of the pesticides. Without regulations and enforcements these pesticides can easily be spread farther than their intended area. This is especially common in developing countries. With misuse the pesticides can easily be picked up by the rainwater and washed into the streams as runoff.

Prevention or Mitigation

The easiest way to prevent the spread and abundance of agricultural pesticides is through education. If more farmers, especially in developing countries, knew about the risks of these pesticides, they would be more careful in the way that they use the pesticides and the protection that the sprayers wear. Another way is to adopt the Integrated Pesticide Management program which "emphasizes non chemical and cultural pest control strategies such as removal of diseased plant parts, crop rotation that may disrupt the life cycle of pests, and biological control such as the use of insect predators" . Particular attention needs to be paid to the developing world as their lower health status makes them more vulnerable to disease and they are usually dependent upon farming as their main source of income and economy. In more developed countries where health and wealth are not such huge issues, consumers can decrease their risk of consuming agricultural pesticides by selecting products that are deemed organic which means that no pesticides were used during the production of those foods.

Pesticides are made up of active and inert ingredients. There are certain labeling requirements for the commercial distribution of products that used agricultural pesticides. The active ones are those which do the damage to the pest, federal law( in many countries like UK)  mandates that these ingredients be clearly labeled on the packaging. Inert ingredients are not required to be labeled as they do not cause harm, they are usually present as a solvent in the solution. (inert ingredients are not necessarily non-toxic). All pesticides must be registered with the EPA before they can be sold or distributed. There are many tests and requirements concerning the potential effects of the pesticides in order to be approved.

All businesses handling food should (continue to) have an obligation to comply with food safety regulations. Among their responsibilities is not to sell unsafe food.  Stricter food safety regulations should be enforced. Regular and surprise inspections should be carried out by Food and Safety Inspectors to ensure safety of food at all times.

References:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/07/eggs-contaminated-with-insecticide-may-have-entered-uk-eu-warns

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/4220132/egg-contamination-fipronil-supermarkets-asda-waitrose-sainsburys-morrisons/

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/pesticides-just-how-bad-are-they/

https://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/health/case_studies/pesticides.html