Pesticides: An Overlooked Danger
1: Introduction
Most foods nowadays are filled with them, yet most people don't exactly know what they are, nor how dangerous they are. These unnoticed health hazards are pesticides. Pesticides are chemicals that have to purpose of killing insects who eat crops. The insects are killed by the toxicity of the pesticides, and it's safe to say that they can also harm the humans that ingest the food.
2: General Information
Pesticides were made due to several insects eating and ruining crops planted by farmers, thus they needed a way to prevent this. The farms would put toxins into the plants that would harm the bugs, but not have too much of an impact on humans. It solved the first problem, but started another. People were starting to get sick by the toxins inside the crops, and thus the farmers continued looking for safer ways to kill the pests. Although, with the help of scientists, they did discover safer ways to kill the pests, there were still harsh side effects. There are certain plants that naturally repel insects without harming humans (for one, rosemary) but they usually are more expensive and simply inefficient when compared to chemical pesticides. Fast forward to present date, the pesticides are safer than before, but are still too toxic and have terrible side effects.
3: Health Risks
A human living in a city can easily get exposed to pesticides, may it be through walking in the streets near a farm or from the food we eat, it is incredibly easy to get contaminated and even suffer some of the side effects. What are these health risks that pesticides put you at risk in? Pesticides actually present BOTH short term and long term side effects from contact. Some of the short term side effects (in order from least severe to most) are:
- a sore throat/cough
- being more prone to allergies
- irritation in the eyes or skin
- nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
- a strong headache, passing out
- extreme weakness, seizures, and even death!
The long term side effects are arguably worse. Long term pesticide exposure has been linked with the development of:
- Parkinson's
- Asthma
- Depression/Anxiety
- A.D.H.D.
- Cancer
This simply shows how dangerous pesticides can potentially be. Although some of the acquiring of some of the more severe side effects is very rare, it is still a great risk that not many are willing to take, and I know I wouldn't like to take that risk any time soon.
These risks are terrible enough, but it gets even worse when infants and expectant mothers are exposed to pesticides.
There are a group of toxins named "developmental toxins". These toxins can have an effect on unborn children and developing fetuses. Pesticides classify as developmental toxins, meaning that unborn children are at a great risk. The risks that unborn children have after exposure to pesticides are as follows:
- death of the fetus
- deformities
- strange and abnormal growth
- misfunctioning organs
These are terrible things to have and are made worse when you realize that these children are especially weak and can't do anything about it.
This is simply the tip of the iceberg for the risk that children can have from exposure of pesticides. Children can absorb pesticides more easily from their skin. Their is more permeable than that of an adult's, but their ratio of skin surface area to body weight is higher. This basically means that infants will absorb about 3 TIMES AS MUCH PESTICIDES AS ADULTS! This is ridculous! This is even worse when we consider that children are less able to cope with these poisons!
The systems used in our bodies as a way to cope with dangerous materials aren't as developed in a child, essentially making them weaker to these attacks! The worst thing is, these children are growing! What this could possibly mean is that these types of toxins could cause irreversible damage to the children as they grow! There is no excuse for this!
4: Pesticides in Colombia.
Here, we can clearly see the rise and drop of these different types of pesticides, as to say insecticides, which dominated the market in the 70's, when cotton production was very high. After a while, the amount of insecticides used decrased until it reached a low in 1978. After that the use of insectides continued to drop whilst fungicides and herbicides increased. While in the grand scheme of things Colombia's pesticides aren't the worst thing, they certainly are very harmful to the population and especially the youth.
Here, we can clearly see the rise and drop of these different types of pesticides, as to say insecticides, which dominated the market in the 70's, when cotton production was very high. After a while, the amount of insecticides used decrased until it reached a low in 1978. After that the use of insectides continued to drop whilst fungicides and herbicides increased. While in the grand scheme of things Colombia's pesticides aren't the worst thing, they certainly are very harmful to the population and especially the youth.
5: Conclusion
Pesticides are a danger to society as a whole. Exposure to them can lead to very harmful outcomes. Although they are expensive, the best option is to use different types of other repellents that are more natural.
Thank you for reading this essay and I hope you learned something out of all of this.
By Andrés Díaz, Step 8 Yellow
