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Are pesticides harmful?

Are pesticides more harmful than good?

  • 1) can they cause leukemia? 2)how do they travel from one yard to the next? 3)Do pesticides only affect the pests they are meant to kill? how so or how not? and is it true that since pesticides tend to break up quiker, that they are safer now? please give me scientific reasoning!!!..thank you..

  • Answer:

    1) Depends on the pesticide, the level of exposure, and the victim's genetic response to the toxin. 2) They could travel from one place to the next through runoff, wind-drift during application, or spillage. However, federal regulations exist to counter those potential sources of exposure, and are usually observed by respectable applicators very stringently. 3) No, many pesticides affect and kill other organisms than the target pest, all the way down to the microbiology of the soil. Ultimately, most pesticides treat the symptoom rather than the source of the problem. However, the source of many pest problems may be well outside the scope of human control. Yes, most pesticides do have a shorter residual life in the environment these days, and yes this does make them safer. As for whether pesticides do more harm than good...consider this. Some scientists estimate that half of the world's entire human population, from the beginning of the species, have died from malaria. Currently, DDT, the poster-child for the evil pesticide stigma is the only thing keeping millions of people in developing nations from dying some very painful deaths.

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I saw this question in conservation too... I'll answer 2 and 3 since #1 was answered in your conservation question... 2) There are three ways I can think of that pesticides can move from yard to yard. They can move by being sprayed there directly (called overspray), by aerial drifting (having a fine mist drift, which is more common in aerosols), and by overwatering of a neighbor after application (they apply the pesticide and then over water their yard and it goes into your yard). Unfortunately, while professional applicators generally read the directions and follow them, the average home user almost NEVER reads and follows the directions. Bummer! 3) Pesticides can be very specific as to their target pest or very non-specific. Bacillus thuringensis is one that kills a pretty narrow number of catepillars, but not ants or bees or anything like that. Other pesticides like the current class of pesticides that are commonly used in urban areas, pyrethroids (the chemical usually, but not always ends in -thrin) are pretty toxic to most insects, including those in the waterways (where they are frequently found!!). There was a class of pesticides called organophosphates, specifically diazinon and chlorpyrifos, which were outlawed for home use because so many non-target pests (yeup, that's the term) were dying getting harmed. Pets and children were unfortunately harmed by these chemicals which are neurotoxins. Ick! Pesticides generally break down (degrade) more quickly than DDT, although sometimes into compounds that are just as toxic as the original pesticide. Fipronil springs to mind, because it's breakdown products are just as toxic as the original product. Fipronil is a replacement product for pyrethroids. I guess my point is, sometimes they're safer than the old ones, but not necessarily. Newer pesticides tend to be more toxic in smaller amounts it seems like... Just read the label and be careful! Hopefully that answers your question

Miss Vida

it travels by following medium air water when pesticides enters through soil it get mixed with water and travel to different parts killing insects them become more immune to these pesticides and if the pest sit iin our food medium we als get different ilness so its is kind of bad but evey rose has its thorn it have good point to

Shreejan d

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