Precautions insecticides

Essential precautions with insecticides are listed in Table 5.41. 

Until a decade ago, the farm may have been considered outside the pale of industrial hygiene. Today, however, the industrialization of agriculture and the advent of new insecticides and other chemicals have made the farm a virtual factory in a rural setting. On the farm, as well as in the factory, dangerous chemicals may be used safely with proper precautions. If manufacturers, processors, and distributors had to relinquish certain substances because they are toxic, American industry would be in a primitive stage. Likewise, the farmer need not bow to economic pests, but can use to the fullest advantage the potent new insecticides if he is scrupulous in protecting himself. 

Medical Management No specific viral therapy exists so treatment is supportive only. Treat patients with uncomplicated VEE infection with analgesics to relieve headache and myalgia. Patients who develop encephalitis could require anticonvulsants and intensive care to maintain fluid and electrolyte balance, ensure adequate ventilation, and avoid complicating secondary bacterial infections. Patients should be treated in a screened room or in quarters treated with residual insecticide for at least five days after onset, or until afebrile (without fever) to foil mosquitoes since humans may remain infectious for mosquitoes for at least seventy-two hours. Isolation and qaurantine is not required. Standard Precautions should be practiced when dealing with infection control for VEE victims as shown below ... 

It is interesting to note that the toxic sodium fluoroacetate (above, p. 11) occurs in the poisonous South African plant gifblaar (Dichapetalum cymosum, PI. I). It has recently been shown that sodium fluoroacetate is a highly effective systemic insecticide, but it is difficult to say exactly how this substance will be applied on a large scale.6 There are many other insecticides containing fluorine and phosphorus, and special precautions must be taken when handling these toxic compounds. 

Safety Aspects in Handling and Exposure. Pyridine compounds are ubiquitous in the natural environment, and are often found in foods as minor flavor and fragrance components. Some synthetic pyridines are used as food additives. A high proportion of pyridine compounds shows some type of bioactivity, albeit mostly minor, such as herbiddal, insecticidal, or medicinal activity. Therefore, all the normal precautions should be exercised when handling pyridines that would be used when handling other organic products that are potentially bioactive. 

In the indoor environment, many types of products such as crystals, sprays and liquids are applied for active and preventative protection of insects. Insect sprays are particularly popular because they are easy to handle and can be combined with air fresheners. Commonly, the amount of active agents in these products is well below 2%. For example, a commercially available insecticide for indoor use may contain 0.25% tetramethrin, 0.05% D-phenothrin and 1% of the synergist pipero-nyl butoxide. Pyrethroids are also used as active agents in liquid products against furniture beetle. In addition, materials containing natural fibers are often equipped with synthetic pyrethroids as a precaution. Apart from the active ingredients, volatile components such as acetone, aliphatic hydrocarbons, cycloalkanes, branched alkanes C3-benzenes and dipropylene glycol monomethyl ether are usually present in insecticides. 

Two precautions must be observed. First, the sample solution must not be added in larger increments or without allowing full time for evaporation of the preceding portion otherwise sample will be leached from the KBr powder. Second, substantially all of the oily contaminant must be removed before the disc is pressed otherwise the insecticide will be lost with the oil pressed out of the disc. 

Precautions DE is considered nontoxic to mammals, but the same properties that make it lethal to pests also cause it to irritate mucous membranes. Wear a dust mask when applying DE to avoid inhaling the particles. Don t apply the dust where children are likely to encounter it. Don t confuse pool-grade DE with the garden variety the type used in pools is chemically treated and poses a severe respiratory hazard. DE is nonselective and will kill beneficial insects. Rain will dilute or wash away DE and mix it into the soil, but the DE will retain its insecticidal properties. 

Precautions Pyrethrin insecticides are moderately toxic to mammals. They will kill lady beetles but do not appear to be harmful to bees. Be aware that many commercial products contain the synergist piperonyl butoxide to enhance the toxicity of the pyrethrin. (See "The Other Ingredients on page 469 for more information.)... 

Precautions Quassia was once used as a substitute for hops in making beer, and it has long been used as a medicinal herb, so it appears to be fairly safe to use. It is one of the few botanical insecticides that seems to go easy on the beneficials like lady beetles and honeybees. 

Space spray treatments have their limitations in that they will only control insects present at time of treatment and the insecticide will not penetrate deeply into cracks and crevices where many insects live. Consequently, frequent treat -ments are necessary for reliable control. Also, although insecticide will be deposited from space sprays onto horizontal surfaces and have some immediate effect, this will not he adequate to function as a residual insecticide. As a general hygiene precaution all food materials or surfaces upon which food will be handled are liable to deposition and must be covered during spraying. 

In South Africa, Jouborl and du To it (1968) recommended alternating synergized pyrethrins with cheaper insecticides, such as malathion, as a precaution against the selection of insecticide-resistant strains. The South African authorities. predicting the onset of resistance to malathion, insisted that synergized... 

Estimates of the number of people injured by pesticides vary widely but may be 100-times the accidental death rate on a worldwide basis (j5, 6). In 1985, 2500 occupationally-related accidental pesticide poisonings were officially reported in California and the real number of injuries may be considerably higher. Neither is the record of safety in pesticide manufacturing in the USA unblemished. Serious injuries to workers involved in manufacturing the insecticide chlordecone, the nematicide dibromochloropropane (DBCP), and, possibly, the insecticide leptophos have been reported in the last 15 years (4, ). There is preliminary but disquieting epidemiological evidence that frequent users of some herbicides may have an elevated risk of contracting cancer, particularly if standard safety precautions are not observed (e.g. 7.,8). 

Treatment of mental disorders secondary to insecticide poisoning should follow certain precautions. Phenothiazine treatment of OP-induced delirium should be avoided. Low-dose succinylcholine can be considered for ECT after OP poisoning (Dillard and Webb 1999). Patients taking phenothiazine medications should avoid jobs with routine or high risk for OP exposure. Treatment should otherwise proceed in accordance with standard practice guidelines for the treatment of mental disorders. Treatment may require additional psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. 

Insecticides were developed to kill insect pests that are themselves proven to be hazardous to human health. Pesticides have generally been useful to the human race. Insecticides have forever banished the threat of locust plagues that swept nineteenth century America. Also, they have been a primary reason why American agriculture is dominant in the world, and they allow us to debate what to do with our grain surpluses rather than argue over how to increase agricultural productivity to feed our people. Significant occupational exposures to these compounds continue to exist around the world, and this exposure scenario may result in toxicity when inadequate safety precautions are applied. 

In spite of its extreme toxicity, nicotine remains one of the safest horticultural insecticides, provided correct precautions are taken. As it is volatile it has no persistent effect and cannot give rise to lethal chain reactions such as those which may occur with the chlorinated hydrocarbons. 

Products and Uses Ingredient in insecticides, antifungals, and antimicrobial agents. Precautions Moderately toxic by swallowing. 

Precaution Combustible liq. corrosive to copper, brass, and aluminum Hazardous Decomp. Prods. Thermal decomp, prods. CD, CO NO, Uses Solubilizer for resins in aq. coatings fatty acid soaps as emulsifier for waxes, floor polishes, min. oil emulsions, insecticides mfg. of nonionic emulsions vapor-phase corrosion inhibitor PU foam catalyst ... 

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