Pesticides and Herbicides and Their Use Have a Massive Impact on Our Environment

While many chemicals used in pesticide and herbicide formulas are harmless. Others may have toxic properties or could form toxic by-products, potentially causing risks to human and animal health and environmental damage.

Table of Content

1. Pesticide use and impact.
2. The lethal use of herbicides.
3. The environmental impact.
4. Health issues and our food.

Pesticides are found as common contaminants in soil, air, water and on non-target organisms in our urban landscapes. Several cases of pesticide poisoning of dolphins have been reported worldwide.

Besides fish, other marine or freshwater animals are endangered by pesticide contamination. Most pesticides aren’t without some negative impacts on the environment.

Can Affect Foliage of Plants While Leaving Plant Roots Unaffected

A pesticide is a naturally or synthetically derived substance used to kill. These products are there to manage, lessen or repel unwanted insects, weeds, fungi, bacteria, rodents or other organisms. Pesticides are used by both conventional and organic farmers and many others. They may be made from natural or biological ingredients.

Even home-made stuff used to control pests are considered pesticides and are regulated sometimes. When used properly, they can shield your home or plants from damage.

However, when the label instructions aren’t followed correctly, plant injury may occur. Also, pests may not be controlled, health may be impaired, and some may contribute to soil, air, or water pollution. Pesticide drift takes place when pesticides suspended in the air as particles are carried by wind to other areas, potentially contaminating them.

• Can be made of toxic chemicals and substances.
• They have contaminated many parts of our environment.
• Used to control, prevent, kill, suppress, or repel pests.
• Many families choose organic to avoid exposure to toxic chemicals.

Pesticide use can adversely affect neighbouring agricultural works, as pests themselves drift to and harm nearby crops that have no pesticide used on them. The first known pesticide used was elemental sulphur dusting, this was about 4,500 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia.

The 19th century saw the beginning of two more natural pesticides. These were pyrethrum, which is derived from chrysanthemums, and rotenone, which is derived from the roots of tropical vegetables. Pesticides are one cause of water pollution, and some are persistent organic pollutants and contribute to soil and flower contamination.

This presents a very real risk for bio-diversity and environmental health.

Pesticides are used widely in agriculture, and they are used at a lower scale in our homes and on ourselves. They are often considered a quick, easy, and inexpensive solution for controlling weeds and insect pests in urban landscapes.

Pesticides can reach surface water through run-off from treated plants and soil. The best way to reduce contamination in our environment is for all of us to do our part to use safer, non-chemical pest control methods.

Since herbicides kill plants, it makes sense that herbicide contamination of water could have devastating effects on aquatic plants. Besides direct acute toxicity, some herbicides may produce sub-lethal results on fish that lessen their chances for survival and threaten the population.

Herbicides may hurt insects or spiders also indirectly when they destroy the foliage these animals need for food and shelter. They can also harm birds by destroying their habitat.

Weeds Are a Significant Drain on the World's Food Supply

Most herbicides selectively kill weeds, but can also kill desirable garden plants if not used properly. So, the likely impact of herbicides and pesticides on atmosphere and community health is important regardless of their noticeable benefits.

Over 98% of insecticides sprayed, and 95% of herbicides reach a destination other than their target species, including non-target species, air, water and soil. A big contributor is thought to be intensive agriculture and the broad application of modern pesticides and herbicides.

Herbicides are commonly applied in ponds and lakes to control algae and plants such as water grasses. These can interfere with activities like swimming and fishing and cause the water to look or smell unpleasant. Non-organic agriculture sprays toxic pesticides and herbicides to keep pests at bay. And many of these chemicals are proving to be harmful to pollinators and other wildlife, and to human health.

Selective herbicides can control certain plant species without injuring others. Still, other examples of particular products are herbicides that can be applied to soil or water before or after the active growing season of plants.

The reputation that herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides have is due to synthetic chemicals designed to serve these purposes accompanied by some severe risks. Also, herbicides often present more significant long term environmental risks than other pesticides, particularly to groundwater.

May contaminate soil, water, turf, and other vegetation.

Our water quality can become unhealthy by overusing yard chemicals like pesticides and herbicides. Contrary to popular belief, applying fertilisers, herbicides, or pesticides before a rainfall does not help them soak in!

Avoid applying pesticides, herbicides, and fertiliser near waterways, or if rain is forecast, and use as directed on the label. While the mix of weeds varies across the country, spraying herbicides remains, in most regions, the “go-to” response for when weeds need managing.

New products are being developed, including biological and botanical derivatives and alternatives thought to reduce health and environmental risks. The ecological effects of many older pesticides are now recognised as severe, and they are banned from production or sale in many countries.

They can have a damaging effect directly or indirectly on soil, environment, surface and groundwater natural flora and fauna, and aquatic life. This will ultimately adversely influence humans and livestock. These damaging effects include removing important floral resources, causing impacts on reproduction, navigation and memory and high-profile incidents when they kill bees.

Plummeting Bee Populations Has Had a Disastrous Impact on Our Crops

Exposure to pesticides may also multiply the effects of other stressors on pollinator populations, such as loss of habitat and exposure to pathogens and diseases. The long-term effects of low-level exposure to one pesticide are greatly influenced by concomitant exposure to others and to pollutants present in air, water, food and drugs.

The widespread use of these chemicals, under the adage, “if little is good, well then, a lot more could be better” has played havoc with human and other life forms. Not all pesticides are created equal, some can harm a very wide variety of non-target species. And many application methods have high potential to drift off target.

People living in agricultural regions, especially farmers who handle these chemicals daily, are noted to have much higher instances of these issues and certain types of cancers. However, with passing time, we have all known the harmful effects of using chemicals to sustain the look of our gardens.

• Compost has also been a way of controlling pests.
• Ecological effects are varied and often inter-related.
• They are undeniably helpful, but also pose certain dangers.
• When formulated as herbicides, some are applied without dilution.

Pesticides are a massive group of chemicals designed to kill unwanted weeds, insects, fungi, rodents, and other so-called pests. The problem is, if those chemicals can kill a bug or plant, they can probably cause harm to humans or pets too.

That brings us to many of the chemicals used to kill pests also endanger human health. Since more people are using these chemicals, it’s essential to make sure that they’re used correctly.

Fresh produce, without toxins is an essential part of a healthy diet.

Another reason some farmers do not like to use chemicals is that if the substances are not controlled carefully, they can get carried away by run-off. This eventually ends up in a water source. Once the groundwater is polluted with toxic chemicals, it may take many years for the contamination to dissipate or be cleaned up.

Stormwater run-off containing these chemicals can enter into water bodies, which will change the natural ecosystem of those water bodies by killing or damaging a wide variety of organisms. The chemicals may also collect and accumulate in the food chain, becoming more concentrated the further up the food chain they move.

Overusing herbicides and pesticides can be toxic to your health, local ecosystems, and our waterways. If you aren’t careful, it can kill beneficial insects and healthy soil organisms, and weaken plant root systems. Also, reduce essential nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous.

The escalating use of these products in recent decades has become a public health hazard, an environmental disaster. It has even evolved so-called “superweeds,” which require increasingly toxic pesticide formulas to kill. The effects of the long-term exposure to small amounts of these pesticides are unclear. Still, studies have linked them to a variety of chronic health conditions such as diabetes, cancer, and neurological defects.

An Organic Farmer's First Line of Defence Is Always Prevention

When used on crops and anywhere that weeds and pests are a problem, parks, roadsides, homes, schools, and businesses. They can have a destructive blanket effect on insects, their food sources, and soil microbes. Farmworkers have risks associated with inhalation and skin contact during the preparation and application of pesticides to crops.

Pesticides that are sprayed on crops will leave a residue on the dead plant material that settles into the soil and can run off into waterways or leach into groundwater. The widespread adoption of genetically engineered crops has clearly led to changes in pesticide use. Still, the nature and extent of these impacts remain open questions.

Herbicides and pesticides have been used to control, eliminate or destroy pests to protect human food. Pest control is used in grocery stores and food storage facilities to manage rodents and insects that infest food such as grain.

Although the human body does a good job of filtering harmful stuff out, low-level exposure to pesticides in the environment and our food still shows up in blood and urine tests. It is best to buy organic foods wherever possible because these food sources are grown without the aid of any synthetic chemicals, including fertilisers or pesticides.

Since certified organic doesn’t allow toxic synthetic chemicals, organic farmers use techniques such as crop rotating, cover cropping, cultivation, and even weeding by hand when necessary. The organic industry has used caution and avoid certain products because the poisons that make them toxic to insects and weeds can also make them harmful to humans.

Organic is a way to avoid the most dangerous chemicals used.

When buying organic products, make sure it’s labelled certified organic and discover who actually certified it. You’ll find many differences in quality and criteria around organic certification. Eating a lot more in-season and organic vegetables are one answer, however.

Try to buy organically grown foods from your local farmers’ markets or farms, where you could ask the farmer themselves about his or her pest control methods. And purchasing certified organic foods is the only way to avoid exposure to synthetic pesticides and herbicides.