Environmental Impact of Pesticides - Air

Air

See also: pesticide drift

Pesticides can contribute to air pollution. Pesticide drift occurs when pesticides suspended in the air as particles are carried by wind to other areas, potentially contaminating them. Pesticides that are applied to crops can volatilize and may be blown by winds into nearby areas, potentially posing a threat to wildlife. Weather conditions at the time of application as well as temperature and relative humidity change the spread of the pesticide in the air. As wind velocity increases so does the spray drift and exposure. Low relative humidity and high temperature result in more spray evaporating. The amount of inhalable pesticides in the outdoor environment is therefore often dependent on the season. Also, droplets of sprayed pesticides or particles from pesticides applied as dusts may travel on the wind to other areas, or pesticides may adhere to particles that blow in the wind, such as dust particles. Ground spraying produces less pesticide drift than aerial spraying does. Farmers can employ a buffer zone around their crop, consisting of empty land or non-crop plants such as evergreen trees to serve as windbreaks and absorb the pesticides, preventing drift into other areas. Such windbreaks are legally required in the Netherlands.

Pesticides that are sprayed on to fields and used to fumigate soil can give off chemicals called volatile organic compounds, which can react with other chemicals and form a pollutant called tropospheric ozone. Pesticide use accounts for about 6 percent of total tropospheric ozone levels.

Read more about this topic:  Environmental Impact Of Pesticides

Famous quotes containing the word air:

    “Only if loves fire with the breath
    Of life be kindled, I doubt,
    With our last air ‘twill be breath’d out,
    And quenched with the cold of death.”
    —Edward Herbert (1583–1648)

    “People fall out of windows, trees tumble down,
    Summer is changed to winter, the young grow old
    The air is full of children, statues, roofs
    And snow. The theatre is spinning round,
    Colliding with deaf-mute churches and optical trains.
    The most massive sopranos are singing songs of scales.”
    —Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)

    “Up from the South at break of day,
    Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay,
    The affrighted air with a shudder bore,
    Like a herald in haste, to the chieftain’s door,
    The terrible grumble, and rumble, and roar,
    Telling the battle was on once more,
    And Sheridan twenty miles away.”
    —Thomas Buchanan Read (1822–1872)