A 14-year-old's invention could help stop people from consuming pesticide-contaminated produce.

Sirish Subash, a ninth-grader from Snellville, Georgia, won the 2024 3M Young Scientist Challenge for his invention, Pestiscand -- a handheld device that can detect pesticide residues on produce.

Subash's invention uses spectrophotometry, a method that measures how materials interact with light by observing how light wavelengths reflect off a surface. In this case, fruits and vegetables.

A machine learning model analyses the data to determine the presence of pesticide. 

During the trial, the Pestiscand had an 85% accuracy in identifying pesticide in spinach and tomatoes.

Exposure to and ingestion of pesticides post serious harmful effects on the body. These chemicals are associated with an increase in cancer risk, disruption of metabolic function, and an increased risk of immune and nervous system dysfunction.

Notably, a 2022 study on the presence of pesticide residue in litchis from China showed 70.7% of the samples had residues of 17 pesticides.

"The residues can stay on produce after washing, and that's where they've been connected to a variety of health issues," the student from Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology told USA Today.

"If we could detect them, we could avoid consuming them. We could reduce the risk of those health issues."

The competition, presented by 3M and Discovery Education, is a national premier middle school science competition. The final was held at 3M global headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota, on October 14 and 15.