In the Rio Grande Valley, Texas where I grew up and my family currently resides, there is a high amount of agricultural land. The crops that are grown majorly are corn, sorghum, sugar cane, aloe vera, alfalfa, and citrus. The first two, often used as animal food and emerging biofuel.
To keep pests at bay from these crops, pesticides such as Terbufos, Chlorpyrifos (which was recently banned in 2021), and clothianidin are most commonly applied. Terbufos has long-term effects such as Lung Cancer, Leukemia, NHL, aggressive prostate cancer, and an increase in breast cancer. Chlorpyrifos overstimulates the nervous system and can block the absorption of vital micronutrients such as iron, potassium, niacin, thiamine, vitamin B6, phosphorous, manganese, and magnesium. All are vital for the human body. If you live in a dense agricultural area it is highly recommended that you consume a high-quality supplement for the above-mentioned nutrients. And no, a multivitamin will not cut it.
Clothianidin is known to be extremely toxic to winter worker honeybees. It is found in these insecticides that act on the CNS as an agonist of acetylcholine, an organic chemical
(meaning your body produces it naturally) that functions in the brain and body as a neurotransmitter (meaning it sends and receives information from and to the nervous system) used at the neuromuscular junction. It is the chemical that motor neurons of the nervous system release in order to activate muscles.
According to US regulations, these pesticides have low toxicity to humans and can cause mild symptoms such as vomiting, abdominal pain, headache, and diarrhea. They also create an allergen risk to grass and grass pollen. The RGV, Texas is in the top 10 in the nation for allergens but is also severely unforested. It is a sociocultural region that is suffering from severe illness, and research has been opened up to find why are people in the RGV soo, unhealthy, with cancer, heart disease, dementia, and diabetes at a National high. Not to mention the fact that the region is highly agriculturally populated and veered toward FFAs and farming.
Our environment should be protected, it is where we live. And while things have been stuck in a redundancy of repeating the past and keeping things how they are, change is inevitable. Does this mean everyone needs to go vegan or organic? Maybe. I don't know. What I do know is that you cannot say that crop spraying with pesticides is contained in a bubble around agriculture. And, if you think that it doesn't affect you because you don't live near it, many others in the RGV do, and WE ALL BREATHE THE SAME AIR.
