Pesticides benficial or haarmful for environmnet???

Question

Pesticides benficial or haarmful for environmnet???

Answer 1

Pesticides can be harmful to the environment especially when the rain washes them away. They eventually end up in rivers, creaks, oceans, etc which usually hurt the sea creatures living there and can also help algae grow which can suffocate coral. This is why Australian coral is becoming endangered.

Answer 2

If they are misused then they can be harmful. Farmers that know how to spray their crops safely can easily keep the environment safe. Some farmers however spray while it is windy, or there is runoff into streams. But these are just careless farmers. Pesticides can be beneficial when they are used correctly. Plus they fight off infectious diseases and insects that could harm the plants and us as well. Certain insects carry a mass loads of diseases and we are actually doing ourselves a favor by using pesticide.

Answer 3

only chemical pesticides are harmful to environment, but bio pesticides are not so

Answer 4

Pesticides are used to get rid of pests such as insects.  They are effective but they can be harmful to the environment or to you if it is a plant you eat.  There is a better way, it is called biological control.  I helped with a problem in a greenhouse and i suggested the use of parasitic wasps.  Parasitic wasps are none stinging wasps that parasitize other harmful arthropods.  A example of a different kind of biological control is ladybugs.  Have an aphid problem? use ladybugs.  Using a biological control doesn't hurt the environment unless  the control isn't native to the state and hasn't been observed in that environment to see if it is harmful.  I hope this helps.

Answer 5

Harmful...

Answer 6

This would depend on what one calls beneficial.  One of the factors in the desertification of africa is the extreme defoliation (overgrazing)  of the native grasslands.  Most of the writings indicate this is caused by stocking too many livestock (cows, goats, sheep, camels, etc.) however, the excessive defoliation from grasshoppers and locust is equally destructive to the grassland.  The use of insecticides, in this case, would obviously become beneficial in the protection of an existing resource.

Another common issue faced in the restoration of native grassland is weed control  Currently the Sierra club classifies bermudagrass their number one weed.  It can and will successfully out compete any of the native grasses, and reduce establishment success.  This grass is extremely tolerant of heat, drought, defoliation, mulching, digging up and all methods of physical weed control.  However application of 0.5 lbs. active ingredient per acre of glyphosate will reduce it's vigor allowing the native grasses to grow and establish themselves.

There are times when the application of an pesticide has no observed effect on the overall environment (obviously the pest is affected), sometimes the effects are negative and sometimes the effect is positive.

Answer 7

HARMFUL!!! Pesticides get into the street runoff, which eventually leads into our oceans, rivers, and lakes.

Answer 8

Harmful

Answer 9

When handled correctly and used wisely, most are benign to the environment.  DDT and cloridane are two I consider exceptions to that.  They had harmful impacts on the environment but were beneficial to humans.  

In the US, DDT caused eagle's egg shells to thin and break.  Because of that, it was removed from the market, many, many years ago...like 30 years or so.  And now eagles are thick as flies, so they recovered just fine.  (When I was a kid, we had no eagles and now I see them all the time.)  DDT is still used in many countries, especially in the tropics.  Were it not for DDT then and now, those countries would be practically devoid of humans because of the malaria carrying mosquitoes.  DDT gets rid of them, thus reducing the spread of malaria.  Too bad they didn't have DDT in WWII, maybe my dad wouldn't have contracted malaria in the Pacific.  

Cloridane was used for many years in the SE U.S. to control termites.  Unfortunately, it is very water soluable and has entered the water table in many areas, especially Florida.  It's no longer on the market and to keep their houses from becoming a large pile of termite p**p, construction methods have had to change.  

Steel studding has replaced wood in many areas.  However, steel isn't without it's environmental inpacts.  Land is destroyed when it's mined from the ground as well as when coal is mined to be used to smelt it.  During smelting, coal releases greenhouse gasses in the process and supposedly contributes to gloabal warming.

Another alternative is to use treated lumber when building.  The wood is impregnated with a witches brew of corrosive and often skin irritating chemicals which termites are smart enough to steer clear of.  So foul are the chemicals that you don't dare inhale the smoke if you burn such wood.  

The last alternative is to use more cement block construction.  It course this involves mining sand, often from rivers which impacts the aquatic environment.  The limestone used to make cement again involves mining and lots of energy is used for the burning process.  Again, a lot of greenhouse gasses are released as a result.

Concerning cloridane, no one has become ill from drinking tainted ground water and the insecticide's environmental impacts could very well be less than the environmental impacts as a result of the construction methods necessary to combat termites.  While DDT is no longer used in the US, it would appear that in tropical countries, the beneficial effects toward human health outweighs any environmental damage it may cause.

For those of you that are so anti-pesticide, consider this.  How many of you or your parents use Roundup herbicide along the sidewalk?  Rose dust (insecticide and fungicide)?  A mosquito fogger?  Bait bars to kill rats and mice?  Flea powder or flea collars on your pets?  Weed and feed on the yard (fertilizer and herbicides).  Dandelion killer?  Like it or not, those are all pesticides.  Hmmm, what is that old saying about people living in glass houses not throwing stones???

Answer 10

Pesticide are very harmful and dangerous.

Answer 11

Hello

Pesticides are Harmful to Crop and Harmful to Environment.

But we are forced to use Pesticides to cultivate Crops like Rice, Chillies, Wheat, Vegitables, Fruits etc for killing Insects.

When we eat the crops as foods/Vegitables/Fruits it will spoin our Stomach/Eyes and Bond Joints.

One side Pesticides are killing us and othe way we are forced to use Pesticides.

There is no way to rescue of this problem.

[e-mail]

Answer 12

How could they possible be beneficial? Perhaps they are not so bad but beneficial? Never

Answer 13

It is dangerous to assume that biologically sourced pesticides are safe.

Herbicides have allowed for weed conrtol to a moderate extent, without the need to till, allowing old crop residues to remain protecting the soil from wind and pounding rain, so protect the soil from erosion.

Unfortunately because those herbicides are not perfect, often the no-till alternative results in weeds being allowed to grow and put down seed, seed that can persist for 5o years and grow when the soil is again tilled. It was not the herbicide that caused those seeds to be dropped, it was a decision to avoid work, a decision to avoid tillage.

Answer 14

Bikinkaw or whatever his name is may seem to know a lot about pesticides, but what it boils down to is this;  

Pesticides are full of harmful chemicals that are designed to kill bugs and diseases. They are powerful chemicals that have been known to pollute water and cause cancer and other sickness and disease to humans and other animals.  While they might make a farmers job easier, they are not a good thing.  There are some that are less harmful than others.  I'm a fan of organic farming myself, and buy only organic produce and grains.

Answer 15

I don't think you've asked the right question, quite! I think the better question to ask would be, "Is the use of pesticides worth the risk?".

There is NO way that pesticides are beneficial to the environment. My entire job is based around trying to stop pesticides from harming the environment more, and I can definitely say that there are some bad players and some fairly neutral players.

I think that for agriculture and some human health issues, yes, pesticides are worth the risk. I also think that they are grossly overused because of ignorance and laziness. Oftentimes, you can "manage" pest populations and not use a pesticide at all, or use it far less if you use it correctly. You can also use a pesticide in a very harmful way, like spraying too much of it all over the place (which happens A LOT).