There are texts describing the use of sulfur to control mites 5000 years ago and spices to stop spoilage of foods. In many areas, especially in the developing world, the use of pesticides has decreased diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, protozoans, sleeping sickness, and other diseases carried by biting insects. In many ways, pesticides can be viewed as a nonrenewable resource that we have exhausted. These include about 600 active ingredients along with 12000 assumed inactive ingredients. However, only 40 pesticides have been banned since 1972.
Many pesticides last a long time.
The amniotic fluid is the fluid that surrounds a baby while it develops within the mother s womb. It was once thought that toxins such as pesticides could not cross the placental barrier and affect children, but this evidence proves otherwise. Effect of pesticides on children vary, but are likely to cause difficulty paying attention, poor short and long term memory, below average reading comprehension, lower IQ scores. These symptoms were found in children whose mothers ate fish from Lake Michigan in the years prior to their pregnancy. Pesticides also travel around the world, accumulating in the poles and other regions.