Science and Technology Production
Pesticides: Use and Misuse and Teir Impact in the Environment
Book
Date:
2019Publishing House and Editing Place:
Intech PublisherISBN:
978-953-51-7998-6Summary *
Over human history, pest control has been continually associated with man-made activities and they have undoubtedly played a clue role in protecting crops. For a couple of thousand years, several kinds of pesticides have been used not only by farmers but also the common population to control pests, weeds and diseases. It is well known that the ancient Egyptians employed some compounds containing alkaloids including among others hemlock, aconite and opium for control pests which were adopted as great favorite of Greeks and the Romans as poisons employed in medicine, rituals, and even war. During the Industrial Revolution significant advances in the manufacture of synthetic chemicals were developed. Some chemicals employed during World Wars I and II accelerate the development of the modern chemical industry. Synthetic chemicals and technologies originally employed for warfare, were then modified and improved for several civilian uses. In 1939, the Swiss chemist Paul Müller designed the insecticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, which was manufactured to eliminate unwanted insects. However, it is also known that the insecticide was definitively banned in 1972 due to its severe toxicity. German researchers developed in 1943 organophosphates compounds such as parathion with insecticide properties which is still in use today despite its high and persistent toxicity. In our days, international and notional government agencies and Administrations regulate the manufacture and the use of the pesticides. Nowadays, the pesticides are developed to persist in the environment for shorter periods in addition to be less toxic for non-target organisms in order to reduce the environmental risk as consequence their use as pest control. Actually, the widespread pesticide use continues to be indispensable for maintaining a sustainable agriculture, control of pest borne diseases, the health of human populations and ecological systems, among other usages. Consequently, pesticides are repeatedly introduced throughout the environment and they made a great contribution among the pollution of the environment since the global distribution is the manner they are employed. Although a vast literature is available on pesticides, this book contains relevant information of diverse pesticides encountered in both anthropogenic and natural environments and provides valuable information about the toxicity of several agrochemicals that can negatively influence the health of humans and ecosystems. This book begins with a chapter presenting an approach of several employed as biomarkers of pesticide pollution. Different aspects have been deeper analyzed throughout the chapter including the influence of diverse pesticides on the spore germination process and the differentiation of their gametophyte on ferns; the impact of some pesticides on fish breathing at physiological, histopathological and tissue levels as well as the toxicological pattern at hematological and biochemical and structural parameters in amphibians. The second chapter is focused in the omics analytical methodologies as efficient current tools to evaluate the final biological response exerted by several environmental pollutants, e.g., chemical mixtures. The third chapter provides information about how several processes namely leaching, diffusion, volatilization, erosion and run-off, assimilation by microorganisms as well as plant uptake can displace different types of pesticides throughout the soil profile in order to increase the groundwater pollution. The fourth chapter is an interest review showing how the massive pesticides, as synthetic pesticides, biopesticides and nano-pesticides, employed continually to protect crops highlighting the harmful side effects inflicted in human populations. The fifth chapter provides information about the use and misuses of agricultural pesticides in Africa. Last, this book includes a final chapter presenting a review of the historical events related to the pesticide employ in Africa. The chapter is focuses on human activities that require the use of chemical agents for pest control to protect crops, animals including humans in African countries.As editors of this volume entitled ?Pesticides - Use and Misuse and their Impact in the Environment? are enormously grateful to all the contributing authors to have contributed to this project book. They have made an extensive effort to arrange the information included in every chapter. The contributions made by the specialists in this field of research are gratefully acknowledged. We hope that the information presented in this book will continue to meet the expectations and needs of all those interested in the different aspects of the pesticide field. The publication of this book is of great importance to those scientists, pharmacologists, physicians, and veterinarians, as well as engineers, teachers, graduate students, and administrators of environmental programmes who will make and employ different investigations to understand both basic and applied aspects of the use and misuse of pesticides. Information provided by the agent in SIGEVAKey Words
PesticidesXenobiotics Biotic matrices