However, we do know some of the ingredients used. For example, some pesticides use creosols. These cause eye irritation, blindness, kidney failure , and other issues.
You can see why many people worry about pesticides. They claim the dangers of pests are much worse. Pests can spread diseases like West Nile virus and Lyme disease. Some pests even lead to asthma and allergies. Worse yet, pests destroy the food we work hard to grow. Are the dangers of pesticides worth it? Pesticides increase crop growth. When farmers and gardeners lose fewer plants to pests, they make more money.
Of course, this also helps consumers. More importantly, it keeps more people fed. Still, many people dislike the use of pesticides. Besides the health risk to humans, pesticides hurt the environment. When we spray pesticides on plants, they can spread through soil and water. Once spread, pesticides can kill birds, fish, and helpful insects.
They also hurt soil fertility , making it harder to grow future crops. The EPA judges the safety of each pesticide every fifteen years. Only pesticides it calls safe for humans are sold. In recent years, the EPA has banned many pesticides from use. It has also worked to lower the amount of residual pesticide left on our food. If you choose to use a pesticide, always follow the directions on the label.
This will help stop the pesticide from spreading to other places. And, of course, always wash fruits and vegetables before you eat them. Some people try to avoid pesticides by eating organic fruits and vegetables. Metabolites are breakdown products that form when a pesticide is used in the environment and mixes with air, water, soil or living organisms.
Often the metabolite is more hazardous than the parent pesticide. Currently, under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act FIFRA , pesticide manufacturers are only required to list the active ingredients in a pesticide, leaving consumers and applicators unaware of the possible toxics present in the inert ingredients of pesticide products they are using, unless the EPA administrator determines that the chemical poses a public health threat.
Pesticide manufacturers argue they cannot release information on inert ingredients because they are trade secrets, and if released, their products could be duplicated. Inert ingredients are mixed into pesticides products as a carrier or sticking agent, and are often as toxic as the active ingredient.
Despite their name, these ingredients are neither chemically, biologically or toxicologically inert. We review safety information about each inert ingredient before approval. If the pesticide will be applied to food or animal feed, a food tolerance is required for each inert ingredient in the product, and we may limit the amount of each inert ingredient in the product.
Inert ingredients play key roles in pesticide effectiveness and product performance. Examples of functions inerts can serve include:. Under federal law, the identity of inert ingredients is confidential business information. The law does not require manufacturers to identify inert ingredients by name or percentage on product labels.
In general, only the total percentage of all inert ingredients is required to be on the pesticide product label. In evaluating a pesticide registration application, we assess a wide variety of potential human health and environmental effects associated with use of the pesticide.
Pesticides are often grouped into "families" because they share similar chemical properties, or they act on the pest in the same way. A pesticide product may have active ingredients from more than one chemical family.
Abbreviations are often used with the trade name on the pesticide label to indicate the type of formulation. Some examples of words and abbreviations used for pesticide label formulation statements are:. It is important to know what form the pesticide is in because the form can have an impact on how hazardous the chemical may be. For example, your skin absorbs liquids more easily than powders. In some cases, formulations such as emulsifiable concentrates may be more easily absorbed than water solutions.
In addition, adjuvants a chemical added to a pesticide to increase its effect may be added to a spray solution. Some adjuvants may increase the amount of pesticide that spreads onto or sticks to your skin, and the amount that is absorbed through your skin.
A formulation will consist of one or more active ingredients plus "inert ingredients" materials with no pesticide action. Inert ingredients are used for many reasons, including making the pesticide more convenient to use, or enhancing its effectiveness.
Even though these inert ingredients will usually be the largest ingredients for example, by percentage , they are often not listed on the label.
The word "inert" does NOT mean that the ingredient is harmless. An "inert" ingredient can be more hazardous to workers than the active pesticide ingredient itself. Information on hazardous ingredients in a pesticide formulation can be found in the Safety Data Sheet SDS for the product. Yes, they can be. Because pesticides are designed to "kill", they can also affect humans or animals such as family pets.
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