Question

Explain how harmful chemicals enter our bodies.​

Answer 1

Harmful chemicals like pesticides enter our food chain unknowingly as these are sprayed on crops to protect them from pests.​ These poisonous substances mix up with soil and water and which then gets absorbed by the plants or by the aquatic organisms.​ As the other organisms feed on them, these chemicals get transferred to their body through the food chain.​

Once these chemicals enter into the organism’s body, they cannot be excreted out.​ With every increasing level in the food chain, the amount of chemical substances increase in their bodies and thus such substances enters and remain in our bodies.

​ This is known as bioconcentration or biological magnification of chemicals.​ ​ ​ ​ ​