Pesticide Research Questions
- List six benefits of pesticide use. List five traits of the ideal pest-killing chemical.
- Describe the events that took place at the Dow pesticide plant in Bhopal, India.
- List nine cultivation practices that can be used to help control pests. Why are these methods not widely used today?
- Overall, do you think that the benefits of pesticides outweigh their disadvantages? Explain your position.
- Should DDT and other pesticides be banned from use in malaria control efforts throughout the world? Explain. What are the alternatives?
- Do you agree or disagree that because DDT and the other banned chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides pose no demonstrable threat to human health and have saved millions of lives, they should again be approved for use in the United States? Explain.
- If increased mosquito populations threatened you with malaria, would you spray DDT in your yard and inside your home to reduce the risk? Explain. What are the alternatives?
- List the advantages and disadvantages of the switch from persistent chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides (such as DDT) to nonpersistent organophosphate pesticides. Have the benefits of this switch outweighed the disadvantages? Explain.
- Explain how widespread use of a pesticide can increase the damage done by a particular pest and create new pest organisms.
- Explain why biological pest control often is more successful on a small island than on a continent.
- Do you believe that farmers should be given economic incentives for switching to IPM? Explain your position.
- If IPM and other alternatives to conventional pesticides are considered to be safer and more effective in the long run than conventional pesticides, why are these methods not being more widely used by farmers?
- Should certain types of foods be irradiated to help control disease organisms and increase shelf life? Explain. If so, should such foods be required to carry a clear label stating that they have been irradiated? Explain.
- What changes, if any, do you believe should be made in the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and the Food Quality Protection Act that regulate pesticide use in the United States?
- Congratulations. You have just been placed in charge of pest control for the entire world. What are the three most important components of your global pest control strategy?
APES