PESTICIDES: MYTHS AND FACTS

Book excerpt: ‘PESTICIDES’. This word itself evokes aversion, scare and contempt thanks to the chemophobia widespread in the media. But they constitute the only group of artificially developed chemicals which have contributed simultaneously towards improvement of public health and food production. On the one hand pesticides control vector borne diseases and save millions and millions of human lives. On the other hand they contribute to food production by preventing the crop plants from the attack of pests and diseases and save millions of people from starvation. In this book historical, scientific and statistical data are provided to dispel the common myths about pesticides and to highlight the significant contributions pesticides have made towards public health, food security and forest conservation.