BC: PESTICIDE USE
FC: PESTICIDE USE | By: Jacqueline Deng
1: Pesticides are chemicals that are used on plants/crops to eliminate unwanted insects and harmful bacteria. | There are many types of pesticides! | Insecticides and herbicides are example of pesticides used by farmers. | Insecticides kills harmful pests and herbicides control the growth of weeds. | Examples of pests include insects, snails, plant diseases, fungi an prions.
2: How do Pesticides work? Insecticides can affect insects in many different ways. When the Insecticide is applied it can affect the nervous system, the production of energy, production of cuticle (which is basically the shell of the insect), the Endocrine System and water balance. Some pesticides can immediately kill the pests/bacteria while some effects them over time. Many farmers use pesticides because it is effective and efficient.
3: Pesticides are used very often. Farmers spray the chemical on their crops to protect them. | Real Life Examples | When the crops are protected, the farmer gets to sell undamaged products which sells for more money.
4: Short Term Effects | These are some symptoms of mild poisoning (short term effects). | -loss of appetite -head aches -dizziness -sweating -diarrhea -irritation of the nose, throat,skin or eyes -thirst -nausea -nervousness -restlessness -insomnia
5: Long Term Effects | -Cancer. Includes Lung, Brain, Kidney, Breast, Liver, Lymphoma, Prostate, Pancreas and Leukemia cancer. -deformity of future child -Parkinson's Disease -Dermatitis -Death
6: How does it affect wild life and people? | Although the food we eat are undamaged and bug free, there are many bacteria left behind, due to the Pesticides. Many people develop diseases or cancers and they eventually die from it. One single mistake and you can suffer from terrible things. It is common for people to not wash their vegetable/fruits before consuming it, but that is not okay. Residues (chemicals that come from Pesticides) are left behind, that is why you need to wash your food. Even though you cannot see the different chemicals does not mean they're not harmful.
7: Pesticides can affect people in many different ways, good and bad. | The pesticides prevents harvested products from rotting which means it can last longer during shipping to different countries. The farmer can sell their crops for more money. | The good side to pesticides are that it gives farmers more money. Many farmers use this method because it's cheap and it gives good results.
8: Pesticide can affect humans in a bad way too. | Exposer to pesticides can harm the immune, nervous or reproductive system. | It can cause diseases too! | (Check long term and short term effects page for more information)
9: Some chemicals can enter the water supply. | This can affect humans and the wild life! | Animals would get diseases from drinking the contaminated water due to the pesticides. | If the water is not cleaned/separated from bacteria and we drink it, we can get diseases, cancer, insomnia, poisoning, etc.
10: How do pesticides end up into our water supply ? | Some chemicals enter the water supply through percolation. Percolation is when the chemicals seep into the ground and overtime they enter the water supply. When the liquid travel through the ground the soluble parts of the substance are separated, this is called Leaching.
11: Leaching | Leaching happens when a pesticide travels through soil. The tighter the pesticide molecules stay close to the soil, the less chance for leaching to occur. The soil is also important in this situation. If the soil is really bad, the chance of a pesticide traveling through the soil is greater. Leftover water in the soil can help carry the pesticide to water supplies (which is not good).
12: Pesticide Drift | When pesticides are applied over an area, the wind can carry the chemicals over the water. This can damage the environment.
13: Animals can get extinct or wiped out from this chemical! Aquatic life (fishes, frogs, etc) can be killed if they're exposed to pesticides. Some creatures can enter a field that has just been sprayed with pesticides. It is hard to prevent the animals from entering the fields or drinking the water from rivers/streams, that is why many animals die from pesticides!
14: How safe is this method? | This method is not safe because there are many ways for the pesticide to get to humans and the wild life. Leaching, percolation and pesticide drift are only some ways for this chemical to spread. It is hard to keep the wind from blowing the chemical particles to the water supplies. It is also hard to prevent leaching, percolation, pesticide drift and animals from entering fields that has this chemical. If it's hard to prevent all these situations then why are people still spraying their fields with this chemical? Sure it destroys pests and unwanted organisms but it can harm humans and the environment.
15: What concerns is there with disposing? | Without using pesticides, the world food supply would cut down. Pesticides control weeds and pest from destroying our crops, if we stop using this chemical then there would be no food for us to eat.Without pesticides Canadian farmers would lose about 70% of their fruit crops, 65% of their vegetable crops and 32% of field crops. This can also affect a country's economy because with destroyed crops, no country would by their crops. Also, farmers would lose their jobs.
16: Real Life Event | On September 20, 2001, a Indian farmer died due to exposer of pesticide. He was spraying his cotton fields with a toxic pesticide, called methyl parathion, also known as Metacid and died the day after. Before his death, he suffered from vomiting, tongue thickness, shivering and giddiness. He was applying pesticides without protection!
17: Fun Facts! | Each year, around 2.5 million tons of pesticides are applied on the world's crops. Pesticide residues in food are often higher in poor countries. In 2001, the world pesticide market was at 32 billion dollars. In 2001, about 69,000 children died from pesticide poisoning in the US.