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The Effects of Herbicide Pollution

Herbicides kill unwanted plants. Some selective herbicides target certain weeds and leave desired plants unharmed. As such, farmers frequently use herbicides to promote the grown of their desired crops while destroying any undesirable plants that could potentially compete with the crops for land and nutrition. Much like pesticides used to kill insects, herbicides composed of chemicals can cause severe environmental damage.

  1. Water Pollution

    • Herbicides are often washed off plants through watering and raining. Because herbicides take a long time to degrade, they run off into nearby bodies of water, such as lakes, ponds and rivers. The herbicides poison many of the plants and animals living in these bodies of water. These pollutants eventually make their way out to the open ocean as they work their way up the food chain. As toxic levels of herbicides build up in higher sea animals, their young experience deformations, and many animals die.

    Soil Pollution

    • Herbicides are typically sprayed onto the desired are using crop dusting planes, which is a largely inaccurate process. There is no way to guarantee that nearby areas will not be doused with the herbicide. This also means that high concentrations of the herbicide build up in the soils on which it is sprayed. Plants, insects and amphibians inhabiting the pollute soil are all affected by the buildup of herbicides. Many animal species are sensitive to the chemicals in herbicides and will be damaged or killed, while some plant species will also die as a result of the pollution.

    Animal Populations

    • The use of herbicides to kill off unwanted species of plants causes unnatural fluctuations in populations of local wildlife. Species that used the unwanted plant species for food or shelter experience a decline in numbers, which opens the door for opportunistic species to increase in numbers. Increased populations of non-native species often contribute to population disruptions all along the food chain.

    Illness

    • Herbicide buildup is linked with mutations and illnesses in a range of species, including humans. Many types of cancers, including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and prostate cancer, have been linked to herbicides and studies have shown that herbicides have been found in human breast milk. The herbicide atrazine causes male frogs to transform into female frogs and Roundup, a commonly used herbicide, kills frogs and tadpoles.

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