● Overuse of pesticides for crops like wheat, corn, and soybeans

○ § Humans get pesticides from eating crops

○ § Humans get larger amount of pesticides from eating animals who have eaten
the crops (Bioaccumulation)
● Human health issues from meat, pesticides, and pollution of soil, water, air.
○ § Relationship to increased healthcare cost

Knowledge section Question section

● Pesticides are the chemical which used to 13/05/19

kill specific pests
● They are commonly used for agriculture
● Pesticides are toxic to animals and human
health
● Pesticides are very effective for farmers
● There are two types of pesticides
○ Selective
○ Broad Spectrum
● First used to prevent malaria
● How did pesticides become popular?
● Why are people using them?
○ Benefits
● How pesticides help with people’s daily life
especially farmers and agricultural products?
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● How pesticides affected organisms’ health?
● Why pesticides made people die and sick
terribly?
● How treatments can be done?

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● How the pesticides affected the environment?
● How does pesticide affect the nutrient cycle?
● How can all of these effects lead to economic
issues?
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● How can pesticides lead to extinction?
○ Reasons
○ Name of extinct species
● How bioaccumulation affect the body?
● How biomagnification affect the food chain?

Things you learned

Why people use them and How did they become so popular:
The benefits of using pesticides are increasing food production, increasing profits for farmers and prevention
of diseases.
● In 1945, pesticides helped to reduce the number of deaths by killing the mosquitos from
malaria. It prevented about seven millions people
● Help to prevent vector-borne diseases such as dengue, leishmaniasis and Japanese
encephalitis.
About 37% of crops are being loss due to the pests which affected the economy by 122 billion dollars a year.
So, the use of pesticides helped to reduce the economic loss. So, without the used of pesticides, the countries
which need to export crops might be a great danger. The economy of those countries will be going down.

When there are too much pesticides inside the body. It could lead to:
● Endocrine Disruption which leads to
○ Reduce semen quality
○ early puberty
○ diabetes and obesity
○ neurological disorders
○ hyper and hypothyroidism and thyroid tumours
● Acute toxicity: can cause harmful effects after inhale the toxic chemicals.
○ Symptoms:
■ sore throat/cough
■ allergic sensitisation
■ eye and skin irritation
■ nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea
■ headache, loss of consciousness
● Long term toxicity: effects which will not show immediately
○ Symptoms:
■ Development of Parkinson disease
■ Asthma
■ depression and anxiety
■ Cancer
● leukaemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Pesticides Poisoning is an illness which do not have the exact medicine to be treated, but there are some
procedures that people could do to help with the situation.

● Pesticides in the eyes:

○ The person need to carefully wash their eyes quickly. The person need to open their eyes and
continue washing their eyes for 15 minutes
● Skin decontamination:
○ The person need to remove the pesticides on their skin with soap and water and they need to
throw away their clothes because the toxic chemical can be on their clothes.
● Respiratory Exposure:
○ Someone need to move the person to an open space to get fresh air. The helper need to watch
the affected person’s breathing closely to see whether the person is convulsing or not.

Case Study:
● Cachi, Ecuador
○ Potatoes are the most needed ingredient on the country’s diet
 ○ Due to its location, the province accounts 40% of the Ecuador’s potatoes production with 25%
of the land used
○ Pesticides has been introduced in the late 1940s
■ Used to control the tuber-boring larva of the Andean weevi
■ Fungicides are also used to control bright
○ Increase productivity and incomes
○ However, the pesticides caused death
■ At rural areas of Cachi where farms are located
■ The annual number of death is about 4 per every 10000 citizens
■ About 4 out of 100 people are suffering from pesticides
○ Dr. Donald Cole have been working in Cachi since 1990.
■ He noticed that the pesticides were leaking out from the farmers’ bags down their
backs and legs.
■ The powders form of pesticides were diffused into the air and into the farmers’ lungs
○ Carbofuran and Methamidophos were the two most dangerous chemical.
■ It was said that they were in the air about 45% and 43%.
■ By the World Health organization, this could lead to death.
■ This could lead to cancer, skin problems and dermatitis.
○ For the Cachi case, the scientists said that pesticides might be one of factor that increased the
rate of suicide.
■ Pesticides exposure affect the mental conditions like minds, feeling etc.
During World War II, it was the time that many toxic chemical was used
● In the first generation, the pesticides were highly toxic
○ Contain arsenic and hydrogen cyanide
○ Was banned as it was too toxic.
● In the second generation, they included synthetic organic compounds
○ Which is chlorinated hydrocarbon
Case Study: DDT
● Discovered in 1939 by a Swiss chemist Paul Muller
○ It is a type of broad spectrum
○ Low toxicity to mammal
○ It was persistent, so didn’t have to apply often
○ Not water soluble
○ Inexpensive and easy to apply
● It was used for non agricultural reasons:
○ Used in WWII
○ Until 1960
■ It was used to control mosquito in the residential areas for the US
■ It was very effective
● Started to get famous overtime
○ People used them very much as it helped to
■ increase yields
 ■ prevent malaria
● However, the malaria has been increasing recently as the vectoring insects
develop resistance to the chemical. So, now DDT is ineffective to the insects
○ In 1962, Rachel Carson published a book called Silent Spring
■ It was a book which warn about the used of pesticides
■ She said that using pesticides will destroy the ecosystem
■ She was focusing on chlorinated hydrocarbon which DDT
● She looked for the nontarget creatures who get affected by
● She found out that
○ There are two type of toxicity
■ Direct
● DDT was toxic to the fish
■ Indirect
● Bioaccumulation-the absorption of toxicity inside the
body
● Biomagnification-the increase of toxicity up the food
chain
○ The research found out that the top predators will contain highly amount of DDT inside the
body
○ It reduced the deposition of calcium in the eggshells.
○ This makes the bird to reproduce thinner eggshells.
○ The population of bald eagles and brown pelicans were nearly eliminated
○ The peregrine falcon disappeared in the eastern US as a result of reproductive failures by the
1960's.
○ DDT found out that to have been found in the fatty tissue of the seals in Eskimos.
○ It showed up that human breast milk is also contained high concentration of DDT
Afterall the research showed that eating meat has higher risks for the body to absorb or accumulate high
concentration of toxicity. As going up the food chain, the more toxicity is being absorbed into the body. This
chemical affects the system of the body which can lead to many diseases. Bioaccumulation and
biomagnification are the reasons of how the wildlife and humans become sick and lead to extinction.
Nowadays, DDT has been banned due to its effect to the environment and wildlife.

➔ (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://study.com/academy/lesson/use-of-pesticides-benefits-and-problems-associated-with-pesticides.h
tml
➔ Burton, A. (2009, August). PESTICIDES: Toward DDT-free malaria control.
Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2721887/
➔ PESTICIDES[​ Pdf]. (2008, July). World Health Organization.
➔ CASE STUDY: Ecuador - Preventing pesticide poisonings in Ecuador. (2018, June 25). Retrieved from
https://www.idrc.ca/en/research-in-action/case-study-ecuador-preventing-pesticide-poisonings-ecuador
➔ Bernardes, M. F., Pazin, M., Pereira, L. C., & Dorta, D. J. (2015, July 08). Impact of Pesticides on
Environmental and Human Health. Retrieved from
https://www.intechopen.com/books/toxicology-studies-cells-drugs-and-environment/impact-of-pesticid
es-on-environmental-and-human-health
➔ Pesticide Poisoning Symptoms and First Aid. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://extension2.missouri.edu/g1915
➔ DDT​[Pdf]. (n.d.). U.S.: National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC).
➔ Pesticide-Free Towns. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.pan-uk.org/pesticide-free/
➔ A. HISTORY OF PESTICIDE USE. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://people.oregonstate.edu/~muirp/pesthist.htm