Preventative Awareness: Pesticides And Their Dangers

Pesticides With spring approaching followed by a very mild winter, the prediction is a very buggy season with lots of vegetation! Keeping our lives bug free and our landscapes beautiful typically involves the use of pesticides.

Pesticides work in two different ways. Pesticides that work rapidly, act on their target organisms by weakening their cell membranes. The ones that work slowly, are actually ingested or absorbed  disrupting the organisms physiologic or metabolic processes. Pesticides work very well on their intended targets, but they can also be extremely harmful to the environment and to humans.  

Children are at the greatest risk because they are still growing, their nervous systems are not fully matured, they cannot detoxify pollutants as well as adults can and they breath in more air than adults. The three most commonly used pesticides are Herbicides, Insecticides and Fungicides. All three degrade into harmless materials over time, but the degradation depends on many environmental factors such as soil type, temperature, plant uptake, wind run off and leaching. 

Short Term Exposure to pesticides can lead to headaches, dizziness, muscle twitches, tingling in the extremities and gastrointestinal problems. Long Term Exposure to pesticides can cause birth defects, learning disabilities, behavioral changes, organ damage, asthma and many forms of cancer. If the use of pesticides are necessary, it is important to know what dangers are associated with the pesticide(s) you are using.

Keep in mind that mixing different pesticides can potentiate their danger. It is important to follow all safety precautions listed to ensure the safety of any children or animals that may come into contact with treated areas.