Pesticides and food safety

Year 2017, Issue: Issue 1(2) - 3. INTERNATIONAL BIOCIDAL CONGRESS, 5 - 5, 01.02.2017

Volkan Recai Ötegen Muhsin Akbaba Ersin Nazlıcan Burak Kurt

Abstract

Besides
prevention of tropical diseases, pesticides are also used to make agricultural
activities fertile. But pesticides are potentially harmful to our health and
may be toxic to the immune, reproductive and nervous systems. After
application; pesticide residues consist depending on factors such as plant
species, time of administration, how it applied. While pesticides make food
supply sustainable, there are concerns about residues in food that people
consume. Therefore food safety concept introduced. Shortly, the purpose of food
safety is to reach products to end consumers without losing its nutritional
value and not posing a risk in any sense. In this context, good agricultural
practices have been established and the maximum residue levels for pesticides
is determined for each plant species and animal feed. This limit is called the
pesticide tolerances. In fact, this limits are legal limits more than health.
Health limit are the values, not effective in the long-term intake of certain
pesticides in animal experiments. The legal limit is one percent of it. The
goal is to make the amount of pesticide residue levels harmless for consumer
health. Even though the residues are below legal limits, recent studies claim
they may affect hormonal system of susceptible individuals. With debates of
food security, to minimize potential damage to environment and human health,
integrated pest control program has been created. American system consists of
six main components; 1. Acceptable pest levels 2. Preventive cultural practices
3. Monitoring 4. Mechanical control 5. Biological control 6. Responsible use
Conclusion: Pesticide use increase the availability of food through efficiency
but may bring health risks of irresponsible use. Instead, combining mechanical,
biological and other preventive practices, appropiate to the region it
increases cost-effectiveness and with minimal ecological damage, we may provide
sustainable agriculture by food security.

 

 

Keywords:
Food, Pest,
Pesticide 

Keywords

Pesticides and food safety

References

• Volkan Recai Ötegen, Muhsin Akbaba, Ersin Nazlıcan, Burak Kurt Çukurova University Faculty of Medicine Department of Public Health