Parathion, USSR

According to VNIIGINTOKS, potent toxic agents (PTA), where the fated dose (FD, J is less than 50 mg/ kg, are not introduced into agriculture, are not produced in the USSR, and are not imported from abroad [12]. In actual fact, Risk Class I OPPs with an FD for laboratory animals of less than 50 mg/kg were not only actively used, but were also produced in the USSR for many years (including such OPPs as parathion, demeton, octamethyl pyrophosphoramide, methyl ethyl... 

Each pesticide used in the USSR had the same history permit, realization that a mistake was made, ban. The only variable in all of these histories was the length of time required to understand that a mistake had been made when the permit was issued. When removing the pesticide from circulation, officials dted several reasons wen/ high toxicity (aldrin, dieldrin, parathion, demeton,... 

Pesticides contaminate not only surface water, but also ground water and aquifers. By 1990 in the USSR, 15% of all pesticides used were detected in underground water [29]. Pesticides were detected in 86% of samples of underground water in Ukraine in 1986-87 (including DDT and its metabolites, HCH, dimethoate, phosalone, methyl parathion, malathion, trichlorfon, simazin, atrazine, and prometrin). In actual fact, the number of pesticides was apparently larger, but the laboratory was able to determine the content of only 30 of the 200 pesticides used at that time in Ukraine [29]. In the 1960s, in the Tashkent and Andizhan oblasts of Uzbekistan, the methylmercaptophos content in the water of studied well shafts was, by clearly underestimated data, 0.03 mg/l (MPC was 0.01 mg/l), of DDT was 0.6 mg/l (MPC was 0.1 mg/ I), and of HCH was 0.41 mg/l (MPC was 0.02 mg/l) [A49]. 

On the whole, 68.7% of 262 types of agricultural and food products that were studied in the USSR in 1988 were contaminated by pesticides in unacceptable quantities. The basic pesticide types led the list OCPs such as DDT (38.8% of 250 types of products studied) and HCH 37.3% of 255 products), OPPs such as methyl parathion (26.5% of 170 products) and trichlorfon (28.4% of 236 products), 2,4-D (43.8% of 144 products), and OMPs (31.0% of 129 products). 

Methyl parathion is applied to cotton in at least 10 countries including five of the top 10 cotton producers. Once commonly applied to cotton grown in the USSR, methyl parathion is now more closely linked with the Americas, being dominant in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Despite US EPA regulations which forbid labourers from entering a field within 48 hours of being sprayed with the chemicaP, over 66 tonnes of methyl parathion are applied annually across several southern US states. ... 

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