Do pesticides require special attention?

The phrase “pesticides” is often used interchangeably with “plant protection products.”

Pesticides, on the other hand, are a larger category that includes goods like biocides, which are meant for non-plant applications to control pests and disease vectors including insects, rodents, and mice, and do not fall within the EFSA’s jurisdiction.

Plant protection chemicals are insecticides that are primarily used to keep crops healthy and prevent disease and infestation from destroying them.

Herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, acaricides, plant growth regulators, and repellents are only a few examples.

Pesticides are chemical substances that are utilized for a variety of reasons around the world.

These substances are widely known for their extended life, high toxicity, and slow decomposition.

But the question is does pesticides a concerning problem in water resources? Do we need to treat water from it? and how much it spread around us.

Pesticide meaning

Any harmful agent used to kill animals, fungus, or plants that economically harm crops or decorative plants or provide a health risk to domestic animals or humans is referred to as a pesticide.

All pesticides interfere with the pest organism’s normal metabolic activities, and they are frequently categorized according to the type of organism they are meant to suppress.

The usage of some insecticides is debatable.

For example, the pesticide DDT, widely used in the 1940s, was severely banned in the United States and worldwide due to its negative effects on the environment, animals and humans.

The use of neonicotinoids was severely limited in various nations, including the whole European Union, in the early twenty-first century, because pesticides may be contributing to the reduction of honeybee numbers.

Credit to: https://pixabay.com/

Pesticides are used to boost agricultural output; nevertheless, they accumulate over time in plant components, water, soil, air and biota.

Pesticides pollute the soil and water, persist in the crops, and eventually enter the food chain, posing a concern to humans.

Pesticide vapors produced by commercial pesticide usage in agriculture have the potential to pollute the air.

They have a significant advantage in that they may save farmers money.

By keeping insects and other pests away from crops.

However, there are a few more significant advantages listed below:

• Controlling pests and disease vectors in plants.
• Controlling disease vectors and nuisance organisms in humans and cattle.
• Managing creatures that wreak havoc on other people’s activities and buildings.

Types of pesticides

They come in a variety of forms, each of which is designed to combat certain pests. Here are a few examples:

• Algaecides: are chemicals that destroy or delay the growth of algae.
• Antimicrobials are used to combat bacteria and viruses, as well as other germs and organisms.
• Disinfectants: are used to keep germs and organisms like bacteria and viruses at bay.
• Fungicides Mold, mildew, and rust are all fungal issues that may be controlled with fungicides.
• Herbicides are used to destroy or prevent undesired plants, generally known as weeds, from growing.
• Insecticides are used to keep insects at bay.
• Insect Growth Regulators are used to stop insects from growing and reproducing.
• Rodenticides are poisons used to kill rodents such as mice, rats, and gophers.
• Insecticides, fungicides, and other pesticides are used to make the wood resistant to insects, fungus, and other pests.

What is the issue?

Pesticides do not always stay in the area where they are sprayed. They are very mobile in their surroundings, moving often through water, air and soil.

The issue with pesticide mobility is that as pesticides migrate, they come into touch with other creatures and potentially harm them.
Pesticides contaminate soil and water, harming microflora and microfauna, and preventing plants from absorbing critical mineral nutrients when applied in large amounts.

Pesticides leak into groundwater and damage drinking water, one of the environmentalists’ main worries.

Herbicide runoff from nearby agricultural catchments has a residual influence, another indication of pesticide use.

Pesticide runoff has resulted in ecosystem depletion along the coast and inshore.

They can also spread and create possible harm through volatilization.

When a pesticide is sprayed, it converts into a gas or vapor, allowing it to travel through the air and spread to new areas of land.

(Drift of Vapor) This can be detrimental to wildlife, including frogs.

Some scientists believe that the chemical atrazine causes reproductive issues in frogs, affecting the frog’s fundamental purpose of survival and reproduction.

Pesticides in surface water

Because runoff from most agricultural and urban areas where pesticides are sprayed runs into streams, surface waters are susceptible to pesticide pollution.

They can enter streams by wastewater discharge, air deposition, spillage and groundwater influx.

Groundwater

Many pesticides bond firmly to soil and become immobile as a result. For those that are mobile in soil, leaching to groundwater might be viewed as a race in time between breakdown into harmless byproducts and transfer to groundwater.

If the pesticide is not easily destroyed and moves freely with water seeping downhill through the soil, it has a good chance of reaching groundwater.

If, on the other hand, the pesticide dissolves quickly or is tightly attached to soil particles, it is more likely to remain in the higher soil layers until it degrades to nontoxic by-products.

Bottled water

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Several investigations in India and Mexico discovered that bottled water samples had a fatal mix of pesticide residues.

Worse, the majority of the tests included up to five distinct pesticide residues, at levels significantly exceeding the safe drinking water regulations.

Toxin levels identified in these samples were high enough to induce cancer, liver and kidney damage, nervous system abnormalities, birth deformities and immune system disturbance in the long run.

They do not kill immediately, but they can create irreversible health problems as they build in body fat.

Pesticides contamination

A lot of studies have been done to estimate pesticide contamination in water bodies and if their concentration is harmful or not.

In a Brazilian study, drinking water contamination from 11 proven, probable, or potentially carcinogenic pesticides were investigated (alachlor, aldrin-dieldrin, atrazine, chlordane, DDT-DDD-DDE, diuron, glyphosate-AMPA, lindane—HC, etc.

This study discovered that the sum of the estimated cancer cases for all 11 pesticides detected in each city was strongly associated with water contamination, raising the possibility that contamination may raise the risk of cancer in this location.

In another study to highlight the contemporary state of pesticide contamination in South Asian River systems, 136 relevant publications published between 2015 and 2020 were analyzed.

After thoroughly reviewing those study publications, they concluded that the majority of river systems are contaminated by pesticides, with DDTs, HCHs, heptachlor, and chlorpyrifos being the most commonly identified substances.

While the Suffolk County Water Authority has been discovering huge concentrations of more than 100 pesticides in Long Island groundwater for years, local farmers say they cannot earn their living without them, according to a Long Island News 12 investigation.

According to the report, one insecticide, imidacloprid, is frequently used yet has been shown to cause reproductive problems in lab animals.

Some locals quoted in the story believe pesticides in their water are to blame for their health problems, although there is no scientific evidence to support these allegations.

References

1-Pesticides, [online] available at: https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/pesticides

2-Pesticide, 25 April, [online] available at: https://www.britannica.com/technology/pesticide

3-Pesticides in bottled water, [online] available at: https://www.cseindia.org/pesticides-in-bottled-water-532

4-Pesticides, [online] available at: https://byjus.com/chemistry/pesticides/

5-Worldwide pesticide usage and its impacts on the ecosystem, 21 October, [online] available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42452-019-1485-1

6-Use of Pesticides: Benefits and Problems Associated with Pesticides, [online] available at: https://study.com/academy/lesson/use-of-pesticides-benefits-and-problems-associated-with-pesticides.html

7-Organochlorine pesticides residues in bottled drinking water from Mexico City [online] available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19294327/

8-Widespread pesticide contamination of drinking water and impact on cancer risk in Brazil [online] available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412022002483

9-Level of pesticides contamination in the major river systems: A review of South Asian country’s perspective [online] available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8220188/

10-No current solutions to pesticide contamination of groundwater [online] available at: https://www.watertechonline.com/wastewater/article/15543113/no-current-solutions-to-pesticide-contamination-of-groundwater

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