Abandoned open-air pesticide warehouse near Sumy

Problems

• Garden on a "pesticide" bomb

  An ecological hotbed of pesticides has developed in Sumy. For many years, there has been an abandoned pesticide storehouse, the storage of which does not comply with the regulations. Chemical reagents contaminate soil, air, and water within a radius of about 1 km, poisoning the existence of both people and flora and fauna in the region. What are the dangers of careless handling of pesticides?
  
  Pesticides are chemical preparations used to kill weeds, pests, various fungi, ectoparasites of pets, and carriers of dangerous human and animal diseases. However, pesticides used in agriculture are toxic not only to pests, but also to humans and animals, and pose a danger to the environment. If the technology of use is violated, these chemicals inevitably cause profound changes in the entire ecosystem in which they were introduced. Because of the combination of environmental properties inherent in all pesticides, their actions are never unambiguous. Easily soluble in rainwater, they penetrate the soil, causing the degradation of communities of various microscopic creatures living there. They kill amoebae, bacteria, infusoria, worms, small mites, insect larvae, and other soil animals, whose role is to accelerate the decomposition of plant and animal residues, their processing, and utilization, thus restoring the natural fertility of the soil. In addition, pesticides harm human health, both directly and indirectly through the accumulation of residues in agricultural products. 
  
  Various non-biotic and biotic factors and processes influence pesticides that have entered the soil, both in the period of their effective action and later, when the drug already becomes residual. The physical and chemical properties of soil affect the transformation of preparations in it. Thus, clays, oxides, hydroxides, and metal ions, as well as the organic matter of the soil act as catalysts in many pesticide decomposition reactions. Usually, microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and higher plants are involved in this decomposition process. There are very few active substances that do not biodegrade. The duration of pesticide decomposition by microorganisms can vary from several days to several months and sometimes tens of years, depending on the specificity of the active substance, the species of microorganisms, and soil properties. The most dangerous pesticides are the persistent ones which can accumulate and remain in the soil for the longest period (decades).
  
  Migration of pesticides along the food chain occurs in all biological types of ecological systems. The main food chains of pesticide migration are water bodies - drinking water - humans; water bodies - hydro planktons - fish - humans; soil - plants - food - humans.
  Toxicity varies and depends on many reasons. Children, the elderly, and patients with gastrointestinal diseases are most susceptible to food poisoning. Long-term consumption of food contaminated with pesticides causes chronic poisoning, often accompanied by diseases of the digestive organs (liver, stomach), and cardiovascular system, and in men, the reproductive function can deteriorate. 
  
  Pesticides also have a negative impact not only on the environment in Sumy but also on the atmosphere as a whole. The main source of pesticides in the atmosphere is crops treatment with them. Also, they may enter the air as a result of evaporation from soil and plants. The highest concentration of chemicals in the atmosphere is reached at the time when the air temperature reaches its maximum value during the day. Pesticides are removed from the atmospheric air with precipitation, by diffusion in the air layer and the ocean, and by chemical transformation. Chemical transformation of pesticides is the most important because as a result of chemical destruction, less toxic products are produced, compared with the original substances. The greatest danger is posed by pesticides that contain compounds of mercury, arsenic, lead, etc., because they do not decompose into simple substances in the atmospheric air, but are deposited on the surfaces of soil and water bodies.
  Therefore, if the hotbed of pesticide pollution in Sumy is not eliminated, it can harm the ecology of the whole of Ukraine and European countries.