Are pesticides harmful?

Harmful Pesticides Used In Agriculture?

• I'm supposed to interview 3 people that have to do with the cause or solution of harmful pesticides being used in farming, so all you have to do (if you have anything to do with ...show more

• Answer:

  Nope pesticides are not harmful. There are only a very few chemicals that are directly harmful, *touch,breath* and when handling those types of chemicals laws require use of safety apparatatus *clothes, gloves, breathing systems* Most all chemicals are very low toxicisty for direct contact. The second most important aspect to learn is LD 50, (look it up!) the LD 50 is fairly low and the residual does not last that long. So a weed control pesticide many times will be completely disapated /broken down into the base elements within a short time frame. In many cases chemicals are disapated with in 1-2 weeks. The last thing is chemicals are designed to degrade to harmless compounds if they are not applied to say, a plant. Take Glyophospate, (you might know it as roundup ??) When Glyophospate comes into contact with soil (dirt) it immediately bonds to the dirt particles and breaks down into harmless compounds over time. 24D is one of the safest broadleaf chemicals there are. the LD 50 is low, residual too is low, And most importantly what most have no clue of,, 24D is nothing but a growth hormone. A highly concerntrated growth hormone but none the less a growth hormone. 24d causes plant cells to rapidly expand/grow and the plant can not physically grow as fast as the growth hormone causes the cells to grow and divide. So the end result is the plant literally grows itself to death. Most "pesticides" act on plants to either cause the plant cells to grow excedingly fast or interfer with the nutrient transference between the celll walls. In the latter instance the cell walls degrade and plant growth can not occur. Pre-emerge pesticides are designed to last longer in the soil and prevent weeds from sprouting and growing so they have to last longer. Atrazine is one example of a longer lasting pesticide. Insecticides on the other hand are generally more directly dangerous to the applicator. (see 1st paragraph above) Even so the longevity of the insecticide is fairly short, and the insecticide breaks down into harmless compounds in a very short time. What makes insecticides inherently more hazzardous is they generally act on the nervous system of the pest being irradicated. Ever use "ant spray" to kill ants or wasps ?? You are using an insecticide which directly effects the nervous system of the Ants or Wasps and kills them. The insecticides sold at the hardware store is very diluted versions of highly toxic compounds. Your last 2 questions are rediculous. Both questions assume there is already a problem which there is not. It is exactly the same as me asking, "what are you doing to keep from abusing your pet dog?" "Do you have any suggestions how I could stop you from beating your pet dog? " Obviously I believe you have been abusing and beating your pet dog for quite some time. Anyone involved in using Pesticides in any commercial situation has to be licenced by their State Dept. of Agriculture and to get licenced, pesticide users have to sucessfully pass an exam. Additionally every licenced pesticide user has to attend several hours of ongoing educational classes every year in order to maintain their licence. Licenced Pesticide users have to maintain an extensive log of the chemicals they use, when they use the chemiclas, the wind conditions, temp conditions, amounts applied per acre, etc.etc.etc.etc. As stated an extensive record of all chemicals used and conditions the chemicals were applied under. The last thing I will point out is Chemicals are very expensive to purchase and use. By what logical reasoning would anyone waste money/time/energy using too much chemical to achieve the desired results ?? The whole point is controling the weed or pest as inexpensively as possible. And,, chemicals are designed to do the job of controlling the pest at a set level. So,, in simple plain language, "if 24 ounces of chemical are required to kill a specific pest or weed it does absolutely NO good and is wastefull to decide that since 24 ounces will kill,, 40 ounces MUST kill the weed/pest better !! Completely illogical reasoning,, and very cost ineffective !!! .