How pesticides contribute to the global pollution and quality degradation of soil

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41545-022-00202-0/figures/1

Nitrogen fertilizer is well known agriculture chemical and with huge negative environmental impact. To produce one kilogram of pesticide requires 10 times more energy usage than 1 Kg of nitrogen fertilizer. This energy is produced from either nuclear energy, or the so called non-renewable sources as such as wind turbine and water movement.
According to Grist article, sulfuryl fluoride, a fumigant, a very toxic gas, used to control a wide variety of pests, including termites, powder post beetles, old house borers, bedbugs, carpet beetles, moths, cockroaches, rats and mice are themselves greenhouse gases: emitting one ton of sulfuryl fluoride is the equivalent of emitting nearly 5,000 tons of CO2, let alone all the other gases emitted in the atmosphere such as NOx, CO, Polycyclic aromatic Hydrocarbons, and the toxic solid left from its production. 

California uses nearly 20 percent of the pesticides applied annually across the United States. 

According PAN UK: ''The harmful effects of pesticides on soil organisms ranged from molecular to community levels, including impacts on mortality, reproductive function, richness and diversity, abundance, behaviours like feeding, burrowing, and decomposition, growth, biochemical biomarkers, and body structure.'' (*5)
What does China use? 

''China has just 7% of the world's arable land, but uses up to one  third of global consumption of chemical fertiliser. And this usage per unit is 2.7 times higher than the world average (China Energy News)*1

''About 1.77 million tonnes of agricultural pesticides were applied in China, constituting about 42% of the total use globally in 2019'' (*4)
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''High levels of chemical pesticides and fertilisers are used to produce crops on China's small, heavily-exploited plots, but overuse can degrade the soil and pollute water, while improper use can cause contamination and hurt biodiversity'' 1 

''It has been reported that more than 150 million miles of China’s farmland are contaminated. Since the discovery of dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) and hexachlorocyclohexane (BHC), their excessive and persistent application has led to severe environmental pollution and human health risks'' *3 

Below a few pesticides are quoted for the serious health effects on humans (*3): 
 -Cyfluthrin is in a group of man-made insecticides and is widely used in homes, outdoors, and in agriculture to effectively control phytophagous insect pests. β-Cyfluthrin induces acute arrhythmic cardiotoxicity through interaction with NaV1.5, and ranolazine reverses the phenotype.

- Fomesafen is an organic compound used as a herbicide. Water-solubility of fomesafen leads to a potential risk to groundwater, and it has been reported that the death of fish is related to fomesafen.

- Pyraclostrobin is an agricultural pesticide product used to kill most fungi, including blights, mildews, molds, and rusts, and has characterized lethal toxicity 

Source:
1 https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-eyes-10-cut-pesticide-use-fruit-vegetables-by-2025-2022-12-01
2 https://grist.org/agriculture/a-new-report-says-pesticides-intensify-climate-change/
3 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.942117/full
4 ​https://www.nature.com/articles/s41545-022-00202-0
5 https://www.pan-uk.org/the-impacts-of-pesticides-on-soil-invertebrates

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