Toxicological and hygienic requirements when working with pesticides in agriculture

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Abstract

Intensive use of pesticides in Russia puts forward the task of identifying ways to prevent their adverse effects on the health of workers.

The purpose of the study is to substantiate the safety requirements when working with pesticides in agriculture from a toxicological and hygienic standpoint.

An analytical study was performed. Research materials documents regulating the use of pesticides, scientific publications, data from own research.

The safety of pesticides for those working with them is based on numerous toxicological and hygienic studies carried out at the stage of registration tests. According to the results of toxicological studies, including the establishment of toxicity parameters for acute inhalation, dermal and oral intake, subacute and chronic exposure, in accordance with the hygienic classification of pesticides by degree of danger, a hazard class is established, which determines the possibility, scale, technology of the use of pesticides on the territory of the Russian Federation. Particular attention is paid to the study of sensitizing effects, irritating effects on the skin and mucous membranes, as well as possible manifestations of long-term effects (teratogenic, embryotoxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic). The severity of carcinogenic and mutagenic effects determines the restriction of the use of pesticides, up to a complete ban. Hygienic regulation of the content of active substances of pesticides is carried out taking into account the hazard class and toxicity parameters. A prerequisite for the safe use of pesticides is the establishment of hygienic standards in almost all environments. The last stage of the study is an assessment of the risk to workers when using each pesticide in real conditions of agricultural production and regulation of use.

Conclusion. Safety requirements for those working with pesticides when applied using various technologies in agricultural conditions are determined taking into account the hazard class of pesticides and the equipment used. The application of the method of assessing the risk of exposure to pesticides at the stage of registration tests guarantees the exclusion from circulation in Russia of drugs that pose a real danger to a working person. The minimum risk of exposure to pesticides on workers is ensured by compliance with all safety requirements and application regulations.

Compliance with ethical standards. Hygienic studies approved by the Local ethics committee of Federal Scientific Center of Hygiene named after F.F. Erisman of the Federal Service for Supervision in Protection of the Rights of Consumer and Man Wellbeing (minutes of the meeting No. 2 from 25.02.2014).

Patient consent. Each participant of the study gave informed voluntary written consent to participate in the study and publish personal medical information in an impersonal form in the journal "Gigiena i Sanitariya (Hygiene and Sanitation, Russian journal)".

Contribution:
Bereznyak I.V. — the concept and design of the study, editing, approval of the final version of the article, responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the article;
Fedorova S.G., Ilnitskaya A.V. — writing sections of the article, material analysis, literature search.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version. 

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest. 

Acknowledgement. The study was carried out within the framework of the project of the industry program “Scientific substantiation of the national system for ensuring sanitary and epidemiological well-being, health risk management and improving the quality of life of the population of Russia”.

Received: August 26, 2022 / Accepted: October 3, 2022 / Published: October 23, 2022

About the authors

Irina V. Bereznyak

Federal Scientific Center of Hygiene named after F.F. Erisman of the Federal Service for Supervision in Protection of the Rights of Consumer and Man Wellbeing

Author for correspondence.
Email: berezniakiv@fferisman.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9501-092X

MD, PhD, DSci., Professor, Head of the Department of Occupational Hygiene of the Federal Scientific Center of Hygiene named after F.F. Erisman of the Federal Service for Supervision in Protection of the Rights of Consumer and Man Wellbeing, 141014, Mytishchi, Russian Federation.

e-mail: berezniakiv@fferisman.ru

Russian Federation

Svetlana G. Fedorova

Federal Scientific Center of Hygiene named after F.F. Erisman of the Federal Service for Supervision in Protection of the Rights of Consumer and Man Wellbeing

Email: noemail@neicon.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8860-5298
Russian Federation

Aleksandra V. Ilnitskaya

Federal Scientific Center of Hygiene named after F.F. Erisman of the Federal Service for Supervision in Protection of the Rights of Consumer and Man Wellbeing

Email: noemail@neicon.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1540-9189
Russian Federation

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