RANI LAKSHMI BAI CENTRAL AGRICULTURAL
UNIVERSITY, JHANSI
Assignment on
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION, RESIDUES AND HEALTH
HAZARDS OF PESTICIDE
SUBMITTED BY: MD MAHFOOZ ALAM
ID No. : 014/15/Ag.
B.Sc. (Hons.), Ag. VIIIth Sem.
Submitted To: Dr. Vaibhav Singh
What is environment
• Environment is living things and what is around you.
It includes physical, chemical and other natural forces.
Natural Environment Built Environment
What Is A Pesticide
Definition:
“Substances meant for attracting, seducing, destroying, or mitigating any
pest”
They are a class of biocide.
The most common use of pesticides is as plant protection products (also
known as crop protection products), which in general protect plants from
damaging influences such as weeds, plant diseases or insects.
Term pesticide is often treated as synonymous with plant protection
product.
What the mean of herbicide & pesticide
• Simply can say chemical substances use to control weeds & pests
Term pesticide includes all of the following :
Herbicide
Insecticide
Insect growth regulator
Nematicide
Termiticide
Molluscicide
Piscicide
Avicide
Rodenticide
Bactericide
Insect repellent
Animal repellent
Antimicrobial
Fungicide
Disinfectant(antimicrobial)
What happen to chemicals in the environment after
application:
• It have ability to contaminate every part of the
environment.
• From that make lot of Effects to the environment.
Air pollution by pesticide:
Pesticides can speared by volatilize and may be blown by winds into
nearby areas.
• Following factors affect to the spreading of pesticide in the air
– Weather conditions at the time of application
– Temperature
– relative humidity
• Ground spraying produces less spread than aerial spraying.
• To minimize this air pollution farmers can establish a buffer zone
around their crop fields.
• Plants such as evergreen trees to serve as windbreaks and absorb the
pesticides.
• It prevent drift into other areas.
• Such windbreaks are legally required in the Netherlands.
Water pollution by pesticide:
• There are four major routes through which pesticides reach the water.
1– Contaminate water when they spraying. Ex. Rice cultivation
2– It may percolate, or leach, through the soil.
3– It may be carried to the water as runoff.
4– Carried to water by eroding soil.
• After contaminate the water it makes lot of problems such as,
– Application of herbicides to bodies of water can cause fish kills.
– Reduce the quality of drinking water.
– Reduce the amount of water available for cultivation.
– Altering the physical characteristics of water bodies.
• Insecticides are typically more toxic to aquatic life than herbicides and
fungicides.
Soil pollution by pesticide
• The use of pesticides decreases the general biodiversity in the soil.
• Also affect to the soil micro-organisms & decrease the soil fertility.
• Effect on growth of the plants.
• Residual effect of the pesticide in the soil.
• Enter to the food chain & bio magnification.
Pesticide effect on plants
• Root nodule formation in plants saves the world economy $10 billion
in synthetic nitrogen fertilizer every year.
• specially pentachlorophenol interfere with legume rhizobium
chemical. Reduction of this symbiotic chemical results in reduced
nitrogen fixation.
• Pesticides can kill bees and decline the pollinators.
Eg:- Chlorpyriphos , Cypermethrin, Carbaryl
• US farmers lose at least $200 million a year from reduced crop
pollination because pesticides applied to fields.
Pesticide effect on animals:
• Pesticides can eliminate some animals' essential food
sources.
• Residues can travel up the food chain.
• Earthworms digest organic matter and increase nutrient
content in the top layer of soil. Pesticides have harmful
effects on growth and reproduction on earthworms.
• Pesticide exposure can be linked to cancer, endocrine
disruption, reproductive effects, neurotoxicity, kidney and
liver damage, birth defects and developmental changes in a
wide range of species
Birds:
• The US estimates that 72 million birds are killed by
pesticides in the United States each year.
• DDT-induced egg shell thinning has especially affected
European and North American bird populations.
• some types of fungicides slightly toxic to birds and
mammals, but may kill earthworms, which can in turn
reduce populations of the birds.
• The paraquat, when sprayed onto bird eggs, causes growth
abnormalities in embryos and reduces the number of chicks
that hatch successfully.
Specific pesticide effect:
Organochlorine DDT:
• Egg shell thinning in birds.
• Endocrine disruptor
• Acute mortality attributed to inhibition of acetylcholine esterase activity
Organophosphate:
• Thyroid disruption properties in rodents, birds, amphibians and fish
• Acute mortality attributed to inhibition of acetylcholine esterase activity
• Reduce metabolic functions such as thermoregulation
Carbamate:
• Interact with vertebrate immune systems
• Reduce metabolic functions such as thermoregulation
• Acute mortality attributed to inhibition of acetylcholine esterase
Activity
Parathyroid:
• Toxic to beneficial insects such as bees and dragonflies.
• Toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms.
Biomagnifications
• If any individual continuously eat
contaminated food it will accumulate
in the body.
• All individuals are part of food chain
as a result, toxins stored in the fats &
oils pass one trophic level to next
trophic level.
• The higher up the food chain more
concentrate the pesticide called
biomagnifications.
• This is danger expose to human
because they are also in top of the
food chains.
Resistance development:
• When pesticide use long period of time, some pest become resistance
to the pesticide.
• Because of resistance development pest can not be control.
• Famer have to increase the concentration or change the pesticide it
make more & more environmental effects.
PESTICIDE RESIDUE:-
Pesticide residue refers to the pesticides that may remain on or in
food or in soil after they are applied to crops.
The amount of initially laid down pesticide after application on
the surface or substrate is termed as deposit while the amount of
pesticide left over after a lapse of time may be referred as residue.
It is expressed as parts per million (ppm).
Related Terms:
• Persistence – Period for which the pesticide remain unaltered.
• Deposit –Amount of initially laid down chemical after application
on the surface.
• Surface residue – Amount of insecticide that remain on treated
surface after a lapse of time.
• Cuticular residue- Residue found in the cuticular region of plant.
• Harvest time residue- Residue found in the substrate at the time of
harvest.
How pesticide residue occur in agriculture
commodities:
Contamination of crop or animals exposed to chemical in the
environment.
Intentional use of pesticide for protection of growing crops and
stored products.
Unintentional exposure to pesticides such as would occur in crops,
grown in soil treated previously or contaminated by foliar
treatment of other crops grown earlier in the rotation.
• Residues in human blood:
– Organochlroine insecticides found in samples of blood serum in rural
areas showed an average of 200.3ppb
– Among all HCH (Hexaclorciclohexan) and DDT(Dichloro Diphenyl
Trichloroethane) were chief contaminents
• Residues in human milk:
– Potential risk to infants
– Toxilogical implecation cannot be assessed presicely
– Hexaclorobenzens a fungicide is found in human milk and fat .
• Residues in human fat:
– In absence of a suitable animal tissue culture or human biomarker
model to provide an objective evaluation it is not possible for
pharmological interpretation of such small amounts of Pesticides
• Residues in food commodities and average daily intake:
– Concentration of pesticides varies greatly
– DDT and HCH are found in ground nut and sesamum oils.
• Residues in environmental samples.
– Residues in aerosols in ranges from 2.06 - 18.96ng/m3 of BHC and
DDT.
– DDT and HCH in drinking water samples 47.4-256.9 mg/L
Maximum residue levels (MRLs)
Mrls is the highest level of a pesticide residue that is legally tolerated
in or on food or feed when pesticides are applied correctly (Good
Agricultural Practice).
Mrls covers the safety of all the consumers i.e. children to adults.
The maximum residue levels information is provided by the chemical
produce during chemical registration.
Any food or non-food should meet the levels of pesticide Mrls of the
different pesticides.
Maximum concentration of a residue that is legally permitted or
recognized as acceptable in, or on, a food, agricultural commodity or
animal feedstuff as set by codex or national regulatory authority
(mg/kg).
ADI:- (Acceptable daily intake)
Estimate of the amount of pesticide in food and drinking water which
can be ingested daily over a life time by humans without appreciable
health risk(mg/kg body weight/day).
Health effects of pesticides
• Acute effects
– Acute health problems may occur in workers that handle pesticides, such as
abdominal pain, dizziness, headaches, nausea, vomiting, as well as skin and
eye problems.
– In China, an estimated half million people are poisoned by pesticides each
year, 500 of whom die.
– Pyrethrins, insecticides commonly used in common bug killers, can cause a
potentially deadly condition if breathed.
• Long term effects
– Cancer
Many studies have examined the effects of pesticide exposure on the risk of
cancer. Associations have been found with: leukemia, lymphoma, brain,
kidney, breast, prostate, pancreas, liver, lung, and skin cancers.
Increased rates of cancer have been found among farm workers who apply
these chemicals
A mother's occupational exposure to pesticides during pregnancy is
associated with an increases in her child's risk of leukemia, Wilms' tumor,
and brain cancer.
Neurological
The risk of developing Parkinson's disease is 70% greater in those exposed
to even low levels of pesticides
People with Parkinson's were 61% more likely to report direct pesticide
application
Long term exposures may increase the risk of dementia.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency finished a 10-year
review of the organophosphate pesticides following the 1996 Food Quality
Protection Act, but did little to account for developmental neurotoxic
effects.
– Reproductive effects
Strong evidence links pesticide exposure to birth defects, fetal death and
altered fetal growth
It was also found that offspring that were at some point exposed to
pesticides had a low birth weight and had developmental defects
– Fertility
A number of pesticides including dibromochlorophane and 2,4-D has been
associated with impaired fertility in males
– Other
Studies have found increased risks of dermatitis in those exposed
According to researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH),
licensed pesticide applicators who used chlorinated pesticides on more than
100 days in their lifetime were at greater risk of diabetes.
