Today involved more research (are you surprised?). The day started off with a quick check-in with Mr. Self where we discussed what we’ve done so far and he gave us some insight in what we could look for. After that, it was back to the research grind. I focused on water contamination caused by pesticides and how that affects the environment. The most interesting thing that I learned was that even though, when used in proper amounts, permethrin is not likely to contaminate water, because of poor regulations and lack of knowledge of pesticide hazards, increased reliance on pesticides have led to the contamination of African freshwater sources. All these pesticides in the water can create “dead zones”: when waters are essentially devoid of life due to lack of oxygen caused by algal blooms. I also read a study about the effects of permethrin on zebrafish. In short, permethrin and water — not a great combination.
