Yo it aint us, Why are PMPs taking the rap for stuff we are not even doing
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We here all over the news, blogs and from environmental watch dogs how the application of pesticides are causing cancer in children, contaminating groundwater, polluting lakes and streams, but has anyone asked who is doing it.
Lets face it as PMP’s we are the poster children for the pesticide industry yet we are responsible for less than 1% of all the pesticide applied in the US.
The reality is that the only experience with pesticides most of America has is with the local home improvement store and with a pest control company.
Yet this accounts for less than 7% of all the pesticides applied in the US.
In this podcast I’m going to uncover the true culprits. Using the EPA’s, USDA, USGS and several universities to bring this into context.
So who’s doing all the spraying?
According to the USDA approximately 877 million pounds of active ingredients where pumped into the ground in 2007 on our crops. The good news is that it went down from the 1.1 Billion pounds of active ingredient when compared to 1980.
Herbicides like glyphosate “Roundup” account for 49% of all pesticides applied.
Source USDA Pesticide Use & Markets
http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-practices-management/chemical-inputs/pesticide-use-markets.aspx.
According to the EPA 70 million pounds of pesticides are applied to residential lawns and landscapes by homeowners. In surveys performed between 20% and 90% of residents reported using a pesticide.
Source Public Education and Outreach on Stormwater Impacts
http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/npdes/swbmp/Pest-Control.cfm
A study in California revealed over 50% of the residents had treated there own homes in the last 6 month, 40%-60% said they didn’t follow the label directions exactly. 42% to 55% where purchased at large home improvement stores.
Only 11% – 17% hired a professional for outdoor pest problems.
5%-15% admitted to pouring the pesticides down the drain or outside down the storm drain.
If you take the 11% – 17% of the estimated 70 million pounds we are only responsible for applying and disposing of correctly you only have 7.7 to 11.9 million pounds of active ingredients at the highest level.
Taking responsibility for the highest percentage of application in the the segment that’s only .88% -1.36% of all the pesticide applied in the country, like I said in the beginning. yo it aint us.
Source Residential Pesticide Use in California.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PDF/PUBS/ncalifsurvey_1.pdf
But wait there’s more
This is not to mention all the landscapers applying glyphosate and other herbicides like its going out of style without any training, supervision, PPE, licence or certification talk about a threat to the environment and health. Products like “roundup” account for the majority of pesticides applied to a home a on an annual basis because its usually applied every week to every other week to mulch and garden areas to control weeds, more than insecticides and fungicides and lawn selective herbicides that may be applied bi monthly or on a quarterly basis. So once again yo, it aint us.
Lets talk about water and air pollution
According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) they investigated 51 streams in 9 states in the mid west in order to determine the presence of a wide range of herbicides, their degradation byproducts and antibiotics in the water. In the 154 water samples that were collected Glyphosate was detected in 36% of the samples.
Source Usgs glyphosate in streems
http://toxics.usgs.gov/highlights/glyphosate02.html
So how much Glyphosate was pumped into the ground
Between 1987 and 2007 an estimated 80,000 metric tons of Glyphosate where used per year in the United States.
So what is the real environmental impact of glyphosate, the EPA doesn’t really know because it is seldom included in environmental monitoring programs, due to technical difficulties of measuring it at glyphosate concentrations relevant to environmental studies.
Source Glyphosate Widespread in the Environment
http://toxics.usgs.gov/highlights/2014-04-23-glyphosate_2014.html
Its in your drinking water
Glyphosate has the potential to cause kidney damage and reproductive effects with long-term exposures.
http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/historical/upload/Archived-Technical-Fact-Sheet-on-Glyphosate.pdf
Glyphosate in your food, how much is in there no one really knows because the testing is very expensive.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/19/usda-pesticides-report-idUSL1N0U325I20141219
If children and adults are getting cancer could it be they are drinking and eating it.
Once again it aint us.
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