Pesticides

What are pesticides?

Pesticides are chemicals designed to kill or control undesirable organisms.

Pesticides are deliberately dispersed over large areas of the rural and urban environment.

They are used within agriculture and forestry to kill pests and weeds, on roads and railways to prevent weed growth and by industry to protect manufactured products.

Pesticides can be classified according to the types of pest organism they are designed to attack; insecticides work against insects, herbicides against weeds, fungicides against fungi, and rodenticides against rodents.

Pesticides come in different physical forms such as liquids, powders, or granules. 

Pesticide use

The global business in pesticide sales have gained momentum since the second half of the twentieth century.

As a rule of thumb, pesticide use has doubled every ten years since the early 1950s.

Developing country markets are still targeted and many of the products sold in these countries are older, cheaper pesticides which are more persistent in the environment or more hazardous to the health of the user.

In areas of regular pesticide use the environment is deteriorating, resulting in contaminated water supplies, loss of plant diversity, insect resistance and cattle or other domestic animal deaths.

China is now the biggest user of fertilisers and pesticides.

China pesticides from Greenpeace China on Vimeo.