Protists, the good verses the bad
Becca Miles
A pesticide is a substance or mixture of substances used to kill pests. For example, they are used to kill mosquitoes that can transmit potentially deadly diseases like west Nile virus. Pests include insects, plant pathogens, weeds, molluscs, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes, and microbes that compete with humans for food and destroy property. With pesticides there are good qualities and bad qualities and I am going to share these with you.
When using pesticides some good qualities they bring are that pesticides kill herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, avicides, harmful food parasites, and rodenticides that can harm a human’s health. Pesticides can prevent sickness in humans that could be caused by moldy food or diseased produce. Pesticides are used in grocery stores and food storage facilities to manage rodents and insects that infest food such as grain.
Pesticides can present danger to consumers, bystanders, or workers during manufacture, transport, or during and after use. The World Health Organization estimated that each year, 3 million workers in agriculture in the developing world experience severe poisoning from pesticides, about 18,000 of them die. Licensed pesticide applicators that used chlorinated pesticides on more than 100 days in their lifetime were at greater risk of diabetes. Also, another problem is that children are particularly vulnerable to pesticides because their bodies are immature and rapidly growing and their immune system is incapable of handling the toxicity.
In my opinion I believe that pesticides are an important thing to have in our world, although they can be harmful to us, they also take away a good amount of the harm that we could in counter without pesticides. If we did not have pesticides in our world then we could be getting sick from the diseased and moldy bacteria that would be on the fruit and vegetables we eat today.
In conclusion, there are good and bad qualities that deal with pesticides but without them we would be in so much more danger than we are with them. So if you are against pesticides being used in our society, maybe think again, do some more research and realize that pesticides aren’t that bad.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:34 am
Well, I actually enjoyed reading this article. I can really relate to it being a farm girl and I am happy you realized that using pesticides are not to be cruel. They are an important tool in agriculture and I did notice you mentioned how it can affect the consumer with moldy foods. Very good.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:51 am
You did very well in writing this blog. I really liked how you not only provided information as to why it’s harmful, but also why we use it ( uses ). You gave your opinion and the way you put it would make opposing people think the way you do. — good job.
– sierra milton
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Becca I really liked reading this article. I didn’t know that pesticides can cause so many problems, or that they help to prevent so many things. I agree with you when you said that pesticides are a good thing to have in the world.
March 29th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Becca,
The following passage is confusing to me:
“pesticides kill herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, avicides, harmful food parasites, and rodenticides that can harm a human’s health.” Do you know what these substances are? It seems to me that this information is inaccurate and misleading. I think that you need to revise you blog.
Mrs. Wolfgang