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    Bl3205 Biological Risk Management: Pesticide Pops (Persistent Organic Pollutants) and Ipm Alternatives

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    redapple26
    This document discusses persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which are toxic, accumulate in body fat, and can travel long distances. It identifies 12 POPs that are particularly dangerous, including DDT and PCBs. Exposure to POPs can cause acute poisoning, endocrine disruption, reproductive issues, and more. While some POPs were formerly used as pesticides, their use has largely been banned, though illegal use continues. Integrated pest management (IPM) provides safer alternatives, using ecological methods like crop rotation, beneficial insects, and least-toxic pesticides as a last resort. Examples from Peru and the US show how IPM improved yields and reduced pest problems compared to conventional chemical-reliant approaches.

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    Bl3205 Biological Risk Management: Pesticide Pops (Persistent Organic Pollutants) and Ipm Alternatives

    Uploaded by

    redapple26
    24 views16 pages
    This document discusses persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which are toxic, accumulate in body fat, and can travel long distances. It identifies 12 POPs that are particularly dangerous, including DDT and PCBs. Exposure to POPs can cause acute poisoning, endocrine disruption, reproductive issues, and more. While some POPs were formerly used as pesticides, their use has largely been banned, though illegal use continues. Integrated pest management (IPM) provides safer alternatives, using ecological methods like crop rotation, beneficial insects, and least-toxic pesticides as a last resort. Examples from Peru and the US show how IPM improved yields and reduced pest problems compared to conventional chemical-reliant approaches.

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    Pops

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    This document discusses persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which are toxic, accumulate in body fat, and can travel long distances. It identifies 12 POPs that are particularly dangerous, including DDT and PCBs. Exposure to POPs can cause acute poisoning, endocrine disruption, reproductive issues, and more. While some POPs were formerly used as pesticides, their use has largely been banned, though illegal use continues. Integrated pest management (IPM) provides safer alternatives, using ecological methods like crop rotation, beneficial insects, and least-toxic pesticides as a last resort. Examples from Peru and the US show how IPM improved yields and reduced pest problems compared to conventional chemical-reliant approaches.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    24 views16 pages

    Bl3205 Biological Risk Management: Pesticide Pops (Persistent Organic Pollutants) and Ipm Alternatives

    Uploaded by

    redapple26
    This document discusses persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which are toxic, accumulate in body fat, and can travel long distances. It identifies 12 POPs that are particularly dangerous, including DDT and PCBs. Exposure to POPs can cause acute poisoning, endocrine disruption, reproductive issues, and more. While some POPs were formerly used as pesticides, their use has largely been banned, though illegal use continues. Integrated pest management (IPM) provides safer alternatives, using ecological methods like crop rotation, beneficial insects, and least-toxic pesticides as a last resort. Examples from Peru and the US show how IPM improved yields and reduced pest problems compared to conventional chemical-reliant approaches.

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    BL3205

    Biological Risk Management


    Pesticide POPs
    (Persistent Organic Pollutants)
    And IPM alternatives
    POPs are…..
     Carbon-based compounds or mixtures that are
    Toxic
    Resistant to normal processes that break down
    contaminants in the body
    Not readily excreted and accumulate in body fat
    Can evaporate and travel great distances
    12 toxic organochlorines
     Even at low levels these chemicals present a a hazard
    because they build up in the body fat of organisms and
    become increasingly concentrated as they move
    through the food web
     12 POPs have been identified as particularly dangerous
    (these are all organochlorine compounds):
    Aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor,
    hexachlorobenzene, mirex, toxaphene, PCBs, dioxins and
    furans
    Health effects of POPs
     Acute exposure to organochlorines in tropical
    agriculture has caused large numbers of deaths and
    injuries, including severe nervous system and liver
    damage
     They are also endocrine disrupters which can interfere
    with the body’s hormonal system
     Reproductive failure and stunted penises found in
    Florida’s alligators result from exposure to these
    chemicals
     Also linked to decline of otters in Europe, extinction of
    native lake trout in the Great Lakes weakened immune
    systems of marine mammals
    Pre-natal exposures
     Endocrine disruptors can alter development
    during pre-natal life and undermine the ability to
    learn, to fight off disease, and to reproduce.
     Linked to immune dysfunction, neurological and
    behavioural abnormalities and reproductive
    disorders in people
     Threaten the health, behaviour and intelligence
    of the next generation
    Use as insecticides
     9 of these 12 chemicals are chemicals that came into
    widespread use after Word War II as pesticides
     Legal and illegal use continues in developing countries
     Public health officials still rely on DDT to control
    malaria-carrying mosquitoes (the only legal use of this
    pesticide, but illegal use on agricultural crops continues)
     Mirex still used against leaf-cutter ants
     Chordane and heptachlor still used against termites
    Problems of substitution
     Many pesticides used today (e.g.
    organophosphates and carbamate insecticides)
    are more acutely toxic to people, wildlife, aquatic
    organisms and beneficial insects than the older
    persistent pesticides that they replaced
     Organophosphates particularly have made
    agricultural workers ill , and pose a hazard to the
    development of children
    A pesticide treadmill?
     Farmers have found that application of pesticides can
    increase their pest problems and forced them to use
    more pesticides!
     This is because agricultural ecosystems are disrupted:
    beneficial insects are eliminated
     Regular use of pesticides also encourages the
    evoloution of superbugs that resist the action of
    pesticides, and new pests have emerged after the use
    of pesticides
    Illegal pesticide use
     Almost all industrialised countries have banned POPs pesticides
    as have many developing countries – but this does not mean
    they are not used
     In India, banned agricultural pesticides like chlordane, heptachlor
    and DDT can be found on sale in local markets
     Governments lack resources and infrastructure to enforce
    legislation
     Some POPs pesticides still produced legally for specific
    restricted uses such as disease vector control e.g. DDT
     In some parts of the world (Africa, eastern Europe) people can
    steal from large stockpiles of obsolete pesticide and repackage
    them
    DDT and disease control
    alternatives
     Currently use in a number of countries, principally for
    controlling malaria and other tropical diseases
     In Tanzania – use of bed nets treated with synthetic
    pyrethroids
     Phillipines – Malaria Control Service replaced DDT with
    alternative insecticides used in rotation proved equally
    effective
     Case detections and treatment an important weapon,
    also elimination of breeding sites (e.g. bans on plastic
    bags!)
    Integrated pest management
     We need solutions appropriate for the site, the
    agricultural system, and the local culture and economy
     Diverse methods, ranging from cultural to chemical
    controls, relying more on information and management
     The ultimate goal is to use ecologically based IPM - a
    systems approach to pest management that is based on
    an understanding of pest ecology.
     The introduction of IPM has been fostered by Farmer
    Field Schools
    Integrated Pest Management
    Techniques
     Cultural controls – use of crop rotation and crop
    mixtures, timed planting to reduce pests
     Mechanical and physical controls – pest
    barriers and insect traps
     Biological controls – direct introduction of natural
    enemies (insect predators, parasites, diseases
    pathogens). Also indirect encouragement of already
    present enemies
    IPM (cont.)
     Biorational methods – deployment of
    pheremones to attract pests (decoys) or to
    disrupt mating, release of sterilised insects to
    limit reproduction, manipulation of the
    atmosphere in closed storage areas to kill pests
     Chemical controls – the use of less toxic
    pesticides as a last resort
    Cotton Farmers in Peru’s Canete
    valley
     An explosion of resistant pests in the 1950s threatened
    cotton production
     The government banned the use of synthetic pesticides
    and worked with farmers to introduce an IPM strategy
     Used short-season cotton varieties that matured before
    the onslaught of boll weevils, bollworms and other pests
     Earlier harvest reduced rain damage and gave farmers
    time to plough under the stalks to combat boll weevils
    and pink bollworm
     Reintroduction of beneficial insects and crop rotation
    further enhanced IPM
    Cotton growing in USA
     Yields in California declined by 20% in 1995 despite
    increased pesticide applications
     A project was set up called Biological Agricultural
    Systems in Cotton
     Growers stopped applying pesticides early in the
    season to foster naturally occurring beneficial insects
    and motes, also released additional predatory mites and
    lacewings
     Growers planted cotton near alfalfa, which serves as a
    trap crop (decoy crop) for the lygus bug as well as
    providing food for beneficial insects
     Further information:

    WWF/Pesticide Action Network North America


    (1999) Successful, Safe and Sustainable
    Alternatives to Persistent Organic Pollutants

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