Pesticide residues

From DrugPedia: A Wikipedia for Drug discovery

Pesticides are chemicals that are use in agriculturefor control of pests,weeds and plant diseases. FAO has defined pesticides as any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing,destroying or controlling any pest, including vectors of human or animal diseases, unwnted species of plants or animals causing harm during or otherwise interfering with production processing,storage, transport or marketing of food, agricultural commodities or animal feed stuffs, which may be administered to the animals for the control of insects, arachnids or other pests in or on their bodies. the term includes substances intended for use as the plant growth regulator, defoliant, desicant,fruit thinning agent,or an agent for preventing pre mature fall of fruit, and substances applied to crops either before or after harvest to prevent deterioration during storage or transport.

[edit] Pesticides and Envronment

Pesticides can cause serious environmental problems. Many are toxic to aquatic life. They can devastate rivers, lakes and groundwater if they are used carelessly or not disposed of properly. Scientists have linked declining numbers of farmland birds to the use of pesticides in intensive farming over the last 50 years.Pesticides can contaminate drinking water supplies. It costs water companies many millions every year to remove pesticide residues from drinking water, and these costs are passed onto customers. Groundwater supplies nearly a third of drinking water. Once groundwater is polluted it remains contaminated for many decades and is costly or impossible to clean up.

The pesticide present on leaves, skin or any other surface right after aplication is called depost. sometimes deposit can be easily seen, as it with many dusts or wettabe powder formulations. If pesticides deposits remain on the surface after one day of application, it is called a residue.