PESTICIDES
What are pesticides?
Pesticides are substances/ chemicals meant for attracting, seducing, and then destroying any type of pest. The most common use of pesticides is plant protection products. Usually pesticides are used to protect plants from any damaging influences such as weeds, plant diseases or insects.
Picture taken from Google Images.
What are the effects of pesticides?
Pesticides can cause delayed health effects in people who are exposed. Pesticide exposure can cause a variety of adverse health effects, ranging from simple irritation of the skin and eyes to more severe effects such as affecting the nervous system, mimicking hormones causing reproductive problems, and also causing cancer. Another thing pesticides can cause is the contamination of the food chain, otherwise known as biomagnification. Once the pesticide has leaked into a sewer, then it will make it to the ocean. Once at the ocean, marine animals will consume the pesticide. You can see that the population is more contaminated as you go up the food chain. (Like in the picture above.)
Examples of pesticides.
The most famous pesticide was DDT. Forty years ago, our national symbol was in danger of extinction throughout most of its range. Habitat destruction and degradation, and the contamination of its food source, largely as a consequence of DDT, decimated the eagle population. Thankfully, the US controlled the DDT and was able to restore the eagle population. Furthermore, pesticides are found in plant fertilizers and pest control sprays/dust such as the most commonly known Raid. If you would like to know more about the effects of DDT on the Bald Eagle, please watch the video below.
Where can pesticides be found?
Pesticides can be found in many places. From store shelves to our own garage, pesticides are lurking beneath us. As explained in the section above, pesticides are known as pest killers. Many of these products can be found in stores.