Pesticides minimizing exposure

Re-entry into treated fields and required posting Protective clothing and equipment and its care and maintenance Pesticide poisoning effects, symptoms, and first aid Medical supervision for pesticide applicators Toxicity of pesticides Minimizing exposure Risk assessment Personal safety and hygiene Types of spray equipment Equipment parts, with emphasis on nozzles Sprayer maintenance and cleaning Sprayer storage... 

Protective clothing offers the most important means for minimizing exposure to pesticides during almost any operation involving these chemicals. However, the protective clothing may... 

This document will be available to pesticide users as a paiiphlet in the near future. It is intended to increase their awareness of the potential hazards of pesticides and the kinds of protective clothing and equipnent that should be worn to minimize exposure. 

During the EFA s Rebuttable Presumption Against Registration (RPAR) process (now called Special Review), it became apparent that if uses of certain pesticides with identified potentials for causing adverse effects were to be continued, user exposure data would be needed that demonstrated minimal exposure hazards when certain use procedures were followed. Scientists of both the EPA and the Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) to EPA then realized that they could not make satisfactory risk assessments and evaluate the impact of continued use without actual workplace exposure data. 

Research methods on toxic effects of pesticides administered by inhalation are defined in detail. Chambers for studying aerosol and pesticide vapor exposures are described by Krasovksy et al. (1986). Once toxicometry parameters at lethal exposure levels are established, the next step is to evaluate threshold doses and concentrations (i.e., amounts that cause minimal shifts in an organism beyond normal deviations). The probability approach has proved appropriate for determining thresholds of adverse effect (Kagan 1981). 

Aerosol products are hermetically sealed, ensuring that the contents caimot leak, spill, or be contaminated. The packages can be considered to be tamper-proof. They deUver the product in an efficient manner generating Httie waste, often to sites of difficult access. By control of particle size, spray pattern, and volume deUvered per second, the product can be appHed directiy without contact by the user. For example, use of aerosol pesticides can minimize user exposure and aerosol first-aid products can soothe without applying painful pressure to a wound. Spray contact lens solutions can be appHed directiy and aerosol lubricants (qv) can be used on machinery in operation. Some preparations, such as stable foams, can only be packaged as aerosols. 

Freed, V.H., Davies, J.E., Peters, L.J., and Parveen, F. (1980) Minimizing occupational exposure to pesticides repellency and penetrability of treated textiles to pesticide sprays, Res. Rev., 75 159-167. 

Davis, J.E. (1980) Minimizing occupational exposure to pesticides personal monitoring, Residue Rev., 75 33-50. 

EPA research investments since 1995 in pesticide exposure and risk assessment methods have helped pioneer novel approaches to quantify risk levels. A team at the University of Washington s School of Public Health and Community Medicine found that 2-5 year olds consuming predominantly organic foods over a 3-day period had 8.5-fold lower mean levels of OP insecticide metabolites in their urine than children eating mosdy conventional (unlabeled) foods (Curl et al., 2003). The study was carefully designed to minimize potentially... 

Benbrook, C. (2006). The effectiveness of farm and private sector initiatives to reduce children s pesticide exposures . Presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the AAAS Opportunities and Initiatives to Minimize Children s Exposure to Pesticides, St. Louis, Missouri. 19 Feb 2006. 

Curt is the general manager of a large landscape company and nursery. His policy is to avoid the use of pesticides, although there are rare occasions when he will resort to using them at work. On those occasions he hires professional applicators and leaves the area to minimize his own exposures and to reduce the risk of bringing home residue that would impact Elizabeth. 

Knaak, J. B. Minimizing occupational exposure to pesticides Techniques for establishing safe levels of foliar... 

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