Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
License.” Additionally, agricultural inspectors, for example, “agricultural engineers,”
should receive frequent training programs on principles of “good agricultural practices,
GAP”; thus they can transfer practices to the farmers in a simple way.
Even under conventional or organic farming, vegetables and fruits may contain pesticide
residues and heavy metals, often below the maximum residue limits (MRLs). Several inves-
tigators (e.g., Bhanti and Taneja 2007; Peris et al. 2007) have reported that residues of OCPs,
OPPs, and certain heavy metals in foods at levels currently regarded as safe adversely affect
human health. On the other hand, such fruits may contain residues of multichemical con-
taminants, such as pesticides and heavy metals (Mansour et al. 2009a,b); a matter which
may pose higher health hazards to the consumers (Mumtaz 1995; Caldas et al. 2006).
Ever since synthetic organic pesticides were first used in agriculture, investigators
have been concerned with the fate of the residues during normal food processing.
Washing, peeling, and cooking were soon recognized as important, but not necessarily
reliable, means of reducing the residue levels in fruits and vegetables (Crosby 1965). At
present, the literature offers more information about the potential role of different food
processes (e.g., washing, peeling, cooking, acid or alkaline treatment, etc.) in removing
most of the chemical contaminants from vegetables and fruits (e.g., Abou-Arab et al.
1998; Abou-Arab and Abou-Donia 2001; Randhawa et al. 2007; Klinhom et al. 2008).
In a monitoring study in India, as an example in this respect, Kumari (2008) estimated
the residue levels of OCs, synthetic pyrethroids (SPs), organophosphates (OPs), and car-
bamates in three unprocessed and processed vegetables, namely, eggplant, cauliflower,
and okra, to determine the residue levels and evaluate the effects of different household
processes (washing and boiling or cooking) on the reduction of residues. In all the three
vegetables, washing reduced the residues by 20%-77% and boiling reduced them by 32%-
100%. Maximum (77%) reduction of OP insecticides was observed in eggplant, followed by
74% in cauliflower and 50% in okra by washing. The same trend was observed by boiling
process, where maximum (100%) reduction of OP insecticides was observed in eggplant,
followed by 92% in cauliflower and 75% in okra. Boiling was found comparatively more
effective than washing in dislodging the residues.
15.10 The Future Outlook and Needs
In this respect, we will briefly touch upon some aspects related to the area of pest control
practices that would reflect on better managing of pesticide performance and/or introduce
safer alternatives.
Integrated Pest Control Management : It is agreed that without pest control practices, there
will be big losses in the yield of agricultural crops. Chemical pesticides still represent the
rapidly effective pest controlling weapon. Other controlling tools, such as biological, phys-
ical, and mechanical controls, are effective but at slower rate. This critical situation caused
the need to use chemical pesticides wisely and in conjunction with other controlling tools
within the concept of so-called integrated pest management (IPM). As we are talking here
about the future outlook and needs with respect to pesticide residues in human body, IPM
may due to minimizing pesticide residues in the agricultural crops. From our perspective,
IPM as a strategy should be encouraged and predominated. Other future outlook and
needs in the course of achieving more pesticide safety is to improve pesticide application
technologies, as demonstrated next.
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