On Thu, 03 Jun 2004 22:18:48 +0300, Nick Apostolakis
wrote:


if i pick up a vegetable 2 days before the pesticide deadline finishes
and store it in a refigerator is the pesticide going to dissolve as if
the vegetable was on the plant?

the point of my question is that i do not know what exactly the term
degrade means for the various agro chemicals.

it could mean that it is unstable anyway and disolves by its own no
matter where the vegetable is stored

or it could mean that it is dissolved by some biological or physical
factors (e.g heat or some bacteria) etc

what is your opinion and practice about this?

thank you

The cooling in the refrigerator would actually slow down the rate of
degradation of the pesticide. Also, in many cases the pesticide will
just degrade into a another compound that is also hazardous -- for
example DDT degrades over time into DDD and DDE, Endrin will break
down into Endrin aldehyde and Endrin ketone. As far as the actual
chemical make-up of pesticide compounds, they are not compounds I
would expect to be easily and readily biodegradable - so I would be
skeptical about a 14-day degradation time for any of them. Heat and
environmental conditions have a major impact on the form and rate of
degradation, as does biological activity.