Pesticide Essays - Pesticides, Environmental Health, Biocides

Pesticide Pesticides are chemicals that make our produce perfect, and our yards free of pests. However, this perfection comes at a price to many different people. Pesticides are poisons with the sole purpose of killing. They are intended to kill weeds, insects and fungus. There are three types of pesticides called herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. Every pesticide has an active ingredient, and an inert ingredient. The active ingredient is the poison that kills he pest, and the inert ingredient is the carrying, or spreading compound. (Honey pg. 2) Pesticides were once thought of as a miracle cure for hunger. They were supposed to keep crops free of pests, and misquitos under control. People were not aware of the dangers that these poisons possessed. DDT* was supposed to be a, "benefactor for all humanity" (Honey pg. 2). There were few regulations on the use of DDT use. It was even sprayed where children played. It was intended to kill misquitos, but it ended up poisoning, even killing people. (Honey pg.2) Elizabeth Rollings says that one of her teachers, Mrs. Keller, had a sister that died from DDT poisoning when Mrs. Keller was a child. People came to her house that sprayed the bushes with DDT to control misquitos, and when Mrs. Keller and her sister played near the bushes they were exposed to the deadly poison. Now a days the U.S. has seen the dangers that pesticides possess and banned many kinds from use in this country. However, the U.S. has yet to ban them from being made here and exported to foreign countries. In fact, 25 tons are exported every hour. (Honey pg. 1) There are three main problems with this: the regulations are very low in the places the U.S. exports to, many of the people in those places are unaware of the dangers, and the pesticides can return on the produce that the U.S. imports. A specific example of how unaware the people are is an incident in Costa Rica. The field workers in a sugar plantation were not told of the dangers of the pesticides that they applied, and they were not given any protective clothing. Many of them went shirtless, and in tennis shoes with no socks. They had used this pesticide for several days when many began to complain of headache and nausea; some began to vomit blood. One man died, but fortunately the problem was discovered in time to treat the rest of the workers before they died. Another of the problems that arise from pesticide exportation is getting it back in the produce we import from these countries. One third of the poison banned in the U.S. returns in what is being called the circle of poison, which is when pesticides that are exported and used on produce that return on the produce, back to the people it was being meant to keep away from. (Scanlan pg.1) To avoid this, many people are shopping at health food stores where pesticides have not been used on the food. There is a basic progression that occurs when the body is poisoned by a pesticide. First there is a biochemical inactivation of an enzyme. Next this biochemical change leads to cellular change. Then the cellular change causes symptoms of poisoning seen or felt in the particular organ where the enzyme that was deactivated was. All this changes a body's homeostasis*, and when homeostasis can not be maintained or restored, disease occurs. Most effects aren't permanent, but may take a long time to completely recover from. However, some do cause permanent damage. The damage of pesticide poisoning varies. It can effect just one particular organ system, or it can effect a number of organ systems.( GTI. Manifestations of Toxic Effects. pg 1) Another problem that pesticide poisoning possess is detection. A history of being exposed to chemicals can cause illness that can be hard to distinguish from a viral infection, such as the flu. One might go to long without treatment thinking they have a virus that they will eventually overcome, when in reality they have been poisoned by pesticides, which can lead to worse and worse damage over time. "People who handle chemicals frequently in the course of their jobs and become ill, should tell their physicians about their previous exposure to chemicals." (GTI Manifestations of Toxic Effects) The statistics of harm from pesticides are numerous. "Each year 25 million people, primarily from the Southern Hemisphere, are poisoned through occupational exposure to pesticides; of those 220,000 die." Pesticides have been linked to cancer in many

Finding the American Dream essays

Finding the American Dream essays In the United States, one major ideology has been the American Dream, which suggests that equality of opportunity exists and that your positions in the social class structure are a reflection of what you deserve. According to Wikipedia the American Dream is defined as a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes the promise of prosperity and success. According to James Truslow Adams, he states that life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement, regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the United States Declaration of Independence which proclaims that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights including Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Each individual comes to the United States in search for a better life. They want to seek religious freedom, equality, education, and to make money. Some people risk all they ever had in their country of origin to attain the American Dream. The United States is known by all to be the land of the opportunities. There are no boundaries to what religion you want to practice, to what profession you study, or how you choose to live your life. Social stratification is the division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative property, power, and prestige. There are three systems of social stratification; slavery, caste, and class. During the 1800S slavery was a social stratification, but after the 13 amendment was passed in 1850, slavery was abolished. There is no limit or restriction when moving from one class to the other. The idealistic vision of the American Dream is that people are not discriminated against race, religion, gender, and national origin. In the United States Education allows you the opportunity to acquire a title and move up in ...