Pros And Cons Of Pesticides

Superior Essays
The controversy around pesticides use! Reading all the different articles in the American Earth book highlighted many important issues and concerned about our society regarding the environment and its impact on our health and the health of the wildlife around us. Though, I can say that the one topic that made me really stop to think and felt that it hits closer to home, was the one about pesticides. After all my dad died 4 years ago because of stomach cancer. What did my dad eat, and how safe is our food? Can these harmful chemicals be the reason behind my dad’s death? Can we trust the food in our markets? Researching this topic made me realize that the use of pesticides is a very controversial issue. To some people pesticides are viewed …show more content…
According to the EPA of United States Environmental Protection Agency, a pesticide is “any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest. Pests can be insects, mice and other animals, unwanted plants (weeds), fungi, or microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. Though pesticides are often misunderstood to refer only to insecticides. In fact the term pesticide also applies to herbicides, fungicides, and various other substances used to control pests (U.S. code title 7, chapter 6, subchapter 2, and section 136- Definitions). However, this perfection method comes at a price to many living …show more content…
Carson used DDT to tell the world about the consequences of the overuse of insecticides. She was able to show how the chemicals were able to transform an area where all lives seemed to live in harmony into the land of death. She showed how birds, sea, and wild animals, human and plants were affected by this product. Her work, and credibility as a scientist was attached by the pesticides industry. They described her as hysterical lady. This didn’t stop her. The testimony she gave before the congress was enough to trigger the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who issued the order later on to ban the use of DDT

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