Environmental impact of pesticides

older/obsolete pesticides that have been banned in some

jurisdictions, has increased overall.[4]

1 Agriculture and the environment

The arrival of humans in an area, to live or to conduct agriculture, necessarily has environmental impacts.
These range from simple crowding out of wild plants in
favor of more desirable cultivars to larger scale impacts
such as reducing biodiversity by reducing food availability of native species, which can propagate across food
chains. The use of agricultural chemicals such as fertilizer
and pesticides magnify those impacts. While advances
in agrochemistry have reduced those impacts, for example by the replacement of long-lived chemicals with those
that reliably degrade, even in the best case they remain
substantial. These eects are magnied by the use of
older chemistries and poor management practices.[4]

Preparing to spray a hazardous pesticide

2 History
While concern ecotoxicology began with acute poisoning
events in the late 19th century; public concern over the
Drainage of fertilizers and pesticides into a stream
undesirable environmental eects of chemicals arose in
the early 1960s with the publication of Rachel Carsons
The environmental impact of pesticides consists of the book, Silent Spring. Shortly thereafter, DDT, originally
eects of pesticides on non-target species. Over 98% used to combat malaria, and its metabolites were shown
of sprayed insecticides and 95% of herbicides reach a to cause population-level eects in raptorial birds. Initial
destination other than their target species, because they studies in industrialized countries focused on acute morare sprayed or spread across entire agricultural elds.[1] tality eects mostly involving birds or sh.[5]
Runo can carry pesticides into aquatic environments
while wind can carry them to other elds, grazing ar- Data on pesticide usage remain scattered and/or not publicly available (3). The common practice of incident regeas, human settlements and undeveloped areas, potentially aecting other species. Other problems emerge istration[5]is inadequate for understanding the entirety of
from poor production, transport and storage practices.[2] eects.
Over time, repeated application increases pest resistance, Since 1990, research interest has shifted from documentwhile its eects on other species can facilitate the pests ing incidents and quantifying chemical exposure to studresurgence.[3]
ies aimed at linking laboratory, mesocosm and eld exEach pesticide or pesticide class comes with a specic periments. The proportion of eect-related publications
focus on sh, inset of environmental concerns. Such undesirable eects has increased. Animal studies mostly [5]
sects,
birds,
amphibians
and
arachnids.
have led many pesticides to be banned, while regulaSince 1993, the United States and the European Union
have updated pesticide risk assessments, ending the use
of acutely toxic organophosphate and carbamate insecticides. Newer pesticides aim at eciency in target and
minimum side eects in nontarget organisms. The phylogenetic proximity of benecial and pest species com-

tions have limited and/or reduced the use of others. Over

time, pesticides have generally become less persistent and
more species-specic, reducing their environmental footprint. In addition the amounts of pesticides applied per
hectare have declined, in some cases by 99%. However,
the global spread of pesticide use, including the use of
1

plicates the project.[5]

SOIL

5 Water

One of the major challenges is to link the results from

cellular studies through many levels of increasing complexity to ecosystems.[5]

Specic pesticide eects

Air

Pesticide pathways

In the United States, pesticides were found to pollute every stream and over 90% of wells sampled in a study by
the US Geological Survey.[30] Pesticide residues have also
been found in rain and groundwater.[31] Studies by the
UK government showed that pesticide concentrations exceeded those allowable for drinking water in some samples of river water and groundwater.[32]
Spraying a mosquito pesticide over a city

Pesticide impacts on aquatic systems are often studied using a hydrology transport model to study movement and
See also: pesticide drift
fate of chemicals in rivers and streams. As early as the
1970s quantitative analysis of pesticide runo was conPesticides can contribute to air pollution. Pesticide drift ducted in order to predict amounts of pesticide that would
occurs when pesticides suspended in the air as particles reach surface waters.[33]
are carried by wind to other areas, potentially contami- There are four major routes through which pesticides
nating them.[23] Pesticides that are applied to crops can reach the water: it may drift outside of the intended area
volatilize and may be blown by winds into nearby areas, when it is sprayed, it may percolate, or leach, through the
potentially posing a threat to wildlife.[24] Weather con- soil, it may be carried to the water as runo, or it may be
ditions at the time of application as well as temperature spilled, for example accidentally or through neglect.[34]
and relative humidity change the spread of the pesticide They may also be carried to water by eroding soil.[35] Facin the air. As wind velocity increases so does the spray tors that aect a pesticides ability to contaminate water
drift and exposure. Low relative humidity and high tem- include its water solubility, the distance from an appliperature result in more spray evaporating. The amount of cation site to a body of water, weather, soil type, presinhalable pesticides in the outdoor environment is there- ence of a growing crop, and the method used to apply the
fore often dependent on the season.[3] Also, droplets of chemical.[36]
sprayed pesticides or particles from pesticides applied as
dusts may travel on the wind to other areas,[25] or pesti- Maximum limits of allowable concentrations for individcides may adhere to particles that blow in the wind, such ual pesticides in public bodies of water are set by the
[31][36]
Simas dust particles.[26] Ground spraying produces less pesti- Environmental Protection Agency in the US.
[27]
ilarly,
the
government
of
the
United
Kingdom
sets
Envicide drift than aerial spraying does. Farmers can employ a buer zone around their crop, consisting of empty ronmental Quality Standards (EQS), or maximum allowland or non-crop plants such as evergreen trees to serve able concentrations of some pesticides in bodies of water
[37]
as windbreaks and absorb the pesticides, preventing drift above which toxicity may occur. The European Union
into other areas.[28] Such windbreaks are legally required also regulates maximum concentrations of pesticides in
water.[37]
in the Netherlands.[28]
Pesticides that are sprayed on to elds and used to
fumigate soil can give o chemicals called volatile organic compounds, which can react with other chemicals 6 Soil
and form a pollutant called tropospheric ozone. Pesticide use accounts for about 6 percent of total tropospheric Many of the chemicals used in pesticides are persistent
soil contaminants, whose impact may endure for decades
ozone levels.[29]

Caution against entering a eld sprayed with sulphuric acid

and adversely aect soil conservation.[38]

The use of pesticides decreases the general biodiversity
in the soil. Not using the chemicals results in higher soil
quality,[39] with the additional eect that more organic
matter in the soil allows for higher water retention.[31]
This helps increase yields for farms in drought years,
when organic farms have had yields 20-40% higher than
their conventional counterparts.[40] A smaller content of
organic matter in the soil increases the amount of pesticide that will leave the area of application, because organic matter binds to and helps break down pesticides.[31]
Degradation and sorption are both factors which inuence the persistence of pesticides in soil. Depending on
the chemical nature of the pesticide, such processes control directly the transportation from soil to water, and
in turn to air and our food. Breaking down organic
substances, degradation, involves interactions among microorganisms in the soil. Sorption aects bioaccumulation of pesticides which are dependent on organic matter
in the soil. Weak organic acids have been shown to be
weakly sorbed by soil, because of pH and mostly acidic
structure. Sorbed chemicals have been shown to be less
accessible to microorganisms. Aging mechanisms are
poorly understood but as residence times in soil increase,
pesticide residues become more resistant to degradation
and extraction as they lose biological activity.[41]

Eect on plants

Nitrogen xation, which is required for the growth

of higher plants, is hindered by pesticides in soil.[42]
The insecticides DDT, methyl parathion, and especially
pentachlorophenol have been shown to interfere with
legume-rhizobium chemical signaling.[42] Reduction of
this symbiotic chemical signaling results in reduced nitrogen xation and thus reduced crop yields.[42] Root nodule
formation in these plants saves the world economy $10
billion in synthetic nitrogen fertilizer every year.[43]
Pesticides can kill bees and are strongly implicated

Crop spraying

in pollinator decline, the loss of species that pollinate

plants, including through the mechanism of Colony Collapse Disorder,[44][45][46][47] in which worker bees from a
beehive or western honey bee colony abruptly disappear.
Application of pesticides to crops that are in bloom can
kill honeybees,[23] which act as pollinators. The USDA
and USFWS estimate that US farmers lose at least $200
million a year from reduced crop pollination because pesticides applied to elds eliminate about a fth of honeybee colonies in the US and harm an additional 15%.[1]
On the other side, pesticides have some direct harmful effect on plant including poor root hair development, shoot
yellowing and reduced plant growth.[48]

8 Eect on animals
Many kinds of animals are harmed by pesticides, leading many countries to regulate pesticide usage through
Biodiversity Action Plans.
Animals including humans may be poisoned by pesticide
residues that remain on food, for example when wild animals enter sprayed elds or nearby areas shortly after
spraying.[27]
Pesticides can eliminate some animals essential food
sources, causing the animals to relocate, change their diet
or starve. Residues can travel up the food chain; for example, birds can be harmed when they eat insects and
worms that have consumed pesticides.[23] Earthworms digest organic matter and increase nutrient content in the
top layer of soil. They protect human health by ingesting decomposing litter and serving as bioindicators of soil
activity. Pesticides have had harmful eects on growth
and reproduction on earthworms.[49] Some pesticides can
bioaccumulate, or build up to toxic levels in the bodies of
organisms that consume them over time, a phenomenon
that impacts species high on the food chain especially
hard.[23]

8.1

8 EFFECT ON ANIMALS

Birds

In England, the use of pesticides in gardens and farmland has

seen a reduction in the number of common chanches

Using an aquatic herbicide

The US Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that 72 million birds are killed by pesticides in the United States each
year.[50] Bald eagles are common examples of nontarget
organisms that are impacted by pesticide use. Rachel
Carson's book Silent Spring dealt with damage to bird
species due to pesticide bioaccumulation. There is evidence that birds are continuing to be harmed by pesticide use. In the farmland of the United Kingdom, populations of ten dierent bird species declined by 10 million breeding individuals between 1979 and 1999, allegedly from loss of plant and invertebrate species on
which the birds feed. Throughout Europe, 116 species
of birds were threatened as of 1999. Reductions in bird
populations have been found to be associated with times
and areas in which pesticides are used.[51] DDE-induced
egg shell thinning has especially aected European and Wide eld margins can reduce fertilizer and pesticide pollution
North American bird populations.[52] In another exam- in streams and rivers
ple, some types of fungicides used in peanut farming are
only slightly toxic to birds and mammals, but may kill
earthworms, which can in turn reduce populations of the
birds and mammals that feed on them.[27]
sh kills when the dead plants decay and consume the
Some pesticides come in granular form. Wildlife may waters oxygen, suocating the sh. Herbicides such as
eat the granules, mistaking them for grains of food. A copper sulte that are applied to water to kill plants are
few granules of a pesticide may be enough to kill a small toxic to sh and other water animals at concentrations
similar to those used to kill the plants. Repeated exposure
bird.[27]
to sublethal doses of some pesticides can cause physiologThe herbicide paraquat, when sprayed onto bird eggs, ical and behavioral changes that reduce sh populations,
causes growth abnormalities in embryos and reduces the such as abandonment of nests and broods, decreased imnumber of chicks that hatch successfully, but most her- munity to disease and decreased predator avoidance.[53]
bicides do not directly cause much harm to birds. Hercan kill
bicides may endanger bird populations by reducing their Application of herbicides to bodies of water
[53]
plants
on
which
sh
depend
for
their
habitat.
[27]
habitat.
Pesticides can accumulate in bodies of water to levels that
kill o zooplankton, the main source of food for young
8.2 Aquatic life
sh.[55] Pesticides can also kill o insects on which some
sh feed, causing the sh to travel farther in search of food
Fish and other aquatic biota may be harmed by pesticide- and exposing them to greater risk from predators.[53]
contaminated water.[53] Pesticide surface runo into The faster a given pesticide breaks down in the environrivers and streams can be highly lethal to aquatic life, ment, the less threat it poses to aquatic life. Insecticides
sometimes killing all the sh in a particular stream.[54]
are typically more toxic to aquatic life than herbicides and
Application of herbicides to bodies of water can cause fungicides.[53]

8.3

Amphibians

The eects of pesticides on human health depend on the

toxicity of the chemical and the length and magnitude of
exposure.[60] Farm workers and their families experience
See also: Decline in amphibian population
the greatest exposure to agricultural pesticides through direct contact. Every human contains pesticides in their fat
In the past several decades, amphibian populations have
cells.
declined across the world, for unexplained reasons which
are thought to be varied but of which pesticides may be a Children are more susceptible and sensitive to
pesticides,[59] because they are still developing and
part.[56]
have a weaker immune system than adults. Children may
Pesticide mixtures appear to have a cumulative toxic efbe more exposed due to their closer proximity to the
fect on frogs. Tadpoles from ponds containing mulground and tendency to put unfamiliar objects in their
tiple pesticides take longer to metamorphose and are
mouth. Hand to mouth contact depends on the childs
smaller when they do, decreasing their ability to catch
age, much like lead exposure. Children under the age
[57]
Exposing tadpoles to the
prey and avoid predators.
of six months are more apt to experience exposure from
organochloride endosulfan at levels likely to be found in
breast milk and inhalation of small particles. Pesticides
habitats near elds sprayed with the chemical kills the tadtracked into the home from family members increase the
[58]
poles and causes behavioral and growth abnormalities.
risk of exposure. Toxic residue in food may contribute to
The herbicide atrazine can turn male frogs into a childs exposure.[61] The chemicals can bioaccumulate
hermaphrodites, decreasing their ability to reproduce.[57] in the body over time.
Both reproductive and nonreproductive eects in
Exposure eects can range from mild skin irritation to
aquatic reptiles and amphibians have been reported.
birth defects, tumors, genetic changes, blood and nerve
Crocodiles, many turtle species and some lizards lack
disorders, endocrine disruption, coma or death.[60] Desex-distinct chromosomes until after fertilization during
velopmental eects have been associated with pestiorganogenesis, depending on temperature. Embryonic
cides. Recent increases in childhood cancers in throughexposure in turtles to various PCBs causes a sex reversal.
out North America, such as leukemia, may be a result of
Across the United States and Canada disorders such as
somatic cell mutations.[62] Insecticides targeted to disrupt
decreased hatching success, feminization, skin lesions,
insects can have harmful eects on mammalian nervous
and other developmental abnormalities have been
systems. Both chronic and acute alterations have been
reported.[52]
observed in exposees. DDT and its breakdown product DDE disturb estrogenic activity and possibly lead to
breast cancer. Fetal DDT exposure reduces male penis
size in animals and can produce undescended testicles.
Pesticide can aect fetuses in early stages of development, in utero and even if a parent was exposed before
conception. Reproductive disruption has the potential
to occur by chemical reactivity and through structural
changes.[63]

9 Persistent organic pollutants

Pesticides are implicated in a range of impacts on human health
due to pollution

8.4

Humans

See also: Pesticide residue

Pesticides can enter the body through inhalation of
aerosols, dust and vapor that contain pesticides; through
oral exposure by consuming food/water; and through skin
exposure by direct contact.[59] Pesticides secrete into soils
and groundwater which can end up in drinking water, and
pesticide spray can drift and pollute the air.

Main article: Persistent organic pollutant

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are compounds that
resist degradation and thus remain in the environment
for years. Some pesticides, including aldrin, chlordane,
DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene,
mirex and toxaphene, are considered POPs. Some
POPs have the ability to volatilize and travel great distances through the atmosphere to become deposited in
remote regions. Such chemicals may have the ability to
bioaccumulate and biomagnify and can bioconcentrate
(i.e. become more concentrated) up to 70,000 times
their original concentrations.[64] POPs can aect nontarget organisms in the environment and increase risk to
humans[65] by disruption in the endocrine, reproductive,

13

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10 Pest resistance
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[70]
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is
broader
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14 External links
National Pesticide Information Center - What happens to pesticides released in the environment?
Streaming online video about eorts to reduce pesticide use in rice in Bangladesh. Windows Media
Player , RealPlayer
Reptile Amphibian & Pesticide (RAP) Database
EXtension TOXicology NETwork (Extoxnet) - pesticide information proles. Environmental and
health information broken down by type of pesticide

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Environmental impact of pesticides Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_pesticides?oldid=733203689

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