Pesticides and pollution Pollution can be defined as the release into the environment of substances or energy in such quantities and for such duration that they cause harm to people, animals or the environment. Pollution can effect all aspects of environment, human-made and natural, and easily transfers from one component of a system to another. Pollutant gasses in the atmosphere fall as 'acid rain', which damages buildings, effects forests and aquatic ecosystems and may lead to soil acidification.
Most pesticides are poisons, but are targeted at specific problems.
In Britain, there is much use of pesticides in horticulture and agriculture generally, and they are used all over the world and in a wide variety of habitats. This means that the more persistent pesticides are in contact with nearly all life on Earth, as they can travel in the atmosphere and via the water of our rivers and oceans, causing pollution on a broad scale. They have even been discovered in the bodies of penguins from the Antarctic. Some degree of persistence, however, is an important practical and economic requirement. In the field, when an organism is subject to a pesticide, most will die.