Answer:

Pesticides in the Environment

The environment includes everything around us, the natural elements, people, the manufactured parts of our world, and the indoor areas in which we live and work. The environment is air, soil, water, plants, animals, houses, restaurants, office buildings, factories, and all that they contain. Anyone who uses a pesticide must consider how it affects the environment.

Applicators must ask:

Where will the pesticide go after it leaves its container or application equipment?

What effects could it have on those non-target sites it may reach?

What can I do to minimize harmful effects?

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Pesticide Characteristics

You must be aware of certain physical and chemical characteristics of pesticides: solubility, adsorption, persistence, and volatility to know how they move in the environment and interact with it.

Solubility is a measure of the ability of a pesticide to dissolve in a solvent, usually water. Highly soluble pesticides dissolve easily in water. They are more likely to move with surface water in runoff or by leaching down through the soil than less soluble pesticides.

Adsorption measure how well a pesticide sticks to soil particles. It occurs because of the attraction between the chemical and soil particles. Typically, oil-soluble pesticides are more attracted to clay particles and organic matter in soil than water-soluble pesticides. Also, pesticide molecules with a positive (+) charge are tightly adsorbed to negatively (-) charged soil particles. A pesticide that adsorbs to soil particles is less likely to move from the spray site than one that does not adsorb tightly to soil.