Depending on the site and pest to be controlled, one or more of the following steps can be effective:. Termite damage can be reduced or prevented by making certain that wooden building materials do not come into direct contact with the soil and by storing firewood away from the home.
By appropriately fertilizing, watering and aerating lawns, the need for chemical pesticide treatments of lawns can be dramatically reduced.
Ask for an inspection of your home and get a written control program for evaluation before you sign a contract. The control program should list specific names of pests to be controlled and chemicals to be used; it should also reflect any of your safety concerns. Insist on a proven record of competence and customer satisfaction. If you have unused or partially used pesticide containers you want to get rid of, dispose of them according to the directions on the label or on special household hazardous waste collection days.
If there are no such collection days in your community, work with others to organize them. One pesticide often found in the home is paradichlorobenzene, a commonly used active ingredient in moth repellents. This chemical is known to cause cancer in animals, but substantial scientific uncertainty exists over the effects, if any, of long-term human exposure to paradichlorobenzene.
EPA requires that products containing paradichlorobenzene bear warnings such as "avoid breathing vapors" to warn users of potential short-term toxic effects.
Where possible, paradichlorobenzene and items to be protected against moths, should be placed in trunks or other containers that can be stored in areas that are separately ventilated from the home, such as attics and detached garages. Paradichlorobenzene is also the key active ingredient in many air fresheners in fact, some labels for moth repellents recommend that these same products be used as air fresheners or deodorants.
Proper ventilation and basic household cleanliness will go a long way toward preventing unpleasant odors. If chemicals must be used, use only the recommended amounts, mix or dilute pesticides outdoors or in an isolated well ventilated area, apply to unoccupied areas, and dispose of unwanted pesticides safely to minimize exposure.
No air concentration standards for pesticides have been set, however, EPA recommends Integrated Pest Management, which minimizes the use of chemical pesticides. Pesticide products must be used according to application and ventilation instructions provided by the manufacturer. Call or fax , or TDD Managing Pests in Schools. Once pesticides and their degradates new compounds formed by the transformation of a pesticide by chemical or biological reactions reach the atmosphere, streams , or ground water, they move through the hydrologic system with air, water, or particles, depending on the chemical and physical properties of the compounds.
The effects of past and present land-use practices may take decades to become apparent in groundwater. When weighing management decisions for protection of groundwater quality, it is important to consider the time lag between application of pesticides and fertilizers to the land and arrival of the chemicals at a well.
This time lag generally decreases with increasing aquifer permeability and with decreasing depth to water. In response to reductions in chemical applications to the land, the quality of shallow groundwater will improve before the quality of deep groundwater, which could take decades. Pesticides are mostly modern chemicals. There are many hundreds of these compounds, and extensive tests and studies of their effect on humans have not been completed. That leads us to ask just how concerned we should be about their presence in our drinking water.
Certainly it would be wise to treat pesticides as potentially dangerous and, thus, to handle them with care. We can say they pose a potential danger if they are consumed in large quantities, but, as any experienced scientist knows, you cannot draw factual conclusions unless scientific tests have been done.
Also, the effect of combining more than one pesticide in drinking water might be different than the effects of each individual pesticide alone. It is another situation where we don't have sufficient scientific data to draw reliable conclusions. Want to know more about pesticides in groundwater?
Follow me to the Pesticides and Water Quality website! Groundwater is one of our most valuable resources—even though you probably never see it or even realize it is there. There is water somewhere beneath your feet no matter where on Earth you live. Groundwater starts as precipitation, just as surface water does, and once water penetrates the ground, it continues moving, sometimes quickly and sometimes very slowly.
Eventually groundwater emerges Pesticides are chemicals designed to kill pests, including insects insecticides , weeds herbicides , and fungi fungicides.
The USGS assesses the occurrence and behavior of pesticides in streams, lakes, and groundwater and the potential for pesticides to contaminate our drinking-water supplies or harm aquatic ecosystems. Even though the ground is an excellent mechanism for filtering out particulate matter, such as leaves, soil, and bugs, dissolved chemicals and gases can still occur in large enough concentrations in groundwater to cause problems.
What is in that water that you just drank? Is it just hydrogen and oxygen atoms? Is it safe for drinking? All water is of a certain "quality" and you can't tell by just looking , but what does "water quality" really mean?
Water full of dirt and grime might work fine for a tomato plant but would you want to drink it? Water quality can be thought of as a measure of the suitability of water for How much do you know about the water below your feet? There are many pieces of equipment, both mechanical and electronic, that are installed at stream-monitoring sites all around the world to measure, record, and transmit both water-quantity and water-quality information.
The U. Geological Survey USGS monitors "real-time" streamflow and water-quality conditions for thousands of streams nationwide. Groundwater will normally look clear and clean because the ground naturally filters out particulate matter. But did you know that natural and human-induced chemicals can be found in groundwater even if appears to be clean? Below is a list of some contaminants that can occur in groundwater.
Groundwater is crutial to millions of Americans as well as many more worldwide. Groundwater provides drinking water to many.
Thus, having reliably clean groundwater is of concern for many throughout the world. But, groundwater can become contaminated with chemicals, biologic organisms, and other possibly-harmful agents. Strawberries, apples, carrots, celery, spinach, grapes, apples, cucumbers are just a few types of food that you should not eat if they are not organic because the pesticide level is the highest on them.
Pesticides also have the potential to harm the nervous system, the reproductive system, and the endocrine system. Pesticides can even be very harmful to fetuses because the chemicals can pass from the mother during pregnancy or if a woman nurses her child.
Although one piece of fruit with pesticides won't kill you, if they build up in your body, they can be potentially detrimental to your health and should be avoided as much as possible. Now that you are informed about pesticides, it is up to you to make the healthy choices that will lead you, your friends, and your family to a healthier lifestyle. In order to avoid as many pesticides as possible, I grow my own fruits and vegetables in my backyard.
By doing this, I know that my food is not being sprayed with chemicals, and it tastes a lot fresher. For pesticide safety tips, visit the United States Environmental Protection Agency's website and if you have any questions pertaining to pesticides, feel free to ask them in the comment box. Stink Bug- Allan Hack via Flickr. Pesticide sign: jetsandzeppelins via Flickr. July 25, By: Samantha Jakuboski. Aa Aa Aa. The Dangers of Pesticides. Rodenticides Pesticides and the Environment Even though pesticides are sprayed on land, many times, they can make their way into a water source, such as a river, ocean, or pond.
So why are pesticides so harmful to people's health? July 23, AM. Posted By: Robert Beatty. To quote the EPA: " Pesticides derived from natural sources e. Sorry, but if you want to go pesticide free, it's not as easy as buying organic. More over, the level of usage when it comes to approved organic pesticides could very well mean a better general rule of thumb is to go non-organic.
But, of course, that would just be a rule of thumb and not an end-all. The only sure route is to know exactly where your food comes from and what pesticides, if any, they use. A nice article otherwise. Email your Friend. Submit Cancel. Part II: Flame Prevent
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