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Modern approaches to hygienic regulation of pesticides in the working zone air

Modern approaches to hygienic regulation of pesticides in the working zone air

ISSN 2223-6775 Ukrainian journal of occupational health Vol.16, No 4, 2020

Modern approaches to hygienic regulation of pesticides in the working zone air

Yastrub T.A., Kirsenko V.V., Hryhorieva K.V., Dontsova D.A.

https://doi.org/10.33573/ujoh2020.04.275

State Institution “Kundiiev Institute of Occupational Health of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine”, Kyiv

Full article (PDF), UKR

Introduction. Maximum Acceptable Concentration in the working zone air (MACw.z.a.) is the main standard in complex hygienic regulation of pesticides, which is used to control the air of the working environment, and compliance with which guarantees safe working conditions in their application. However, a traditional approach to experimentally determined hygienic standard, despite its indisputable advantage in terms of scientific validity and high reliability, is an extremely time-consuming and a long-term procedure, and taking into account a wide range of pesticides – it is also almost impracticable and unreasonably expensive. This creates a huge deficit in traditionally formed regulatory framework of pesticides, one of the most important indicators of the safety of the work environment – the content of pesticides in the working zone air, and call for finding alternative solutions.

Purpose of the study – to develop an approach to establishing hygienic standards for pesticides in the working zone area – inhalation equivalents of the acceptable exposure levels (IE AEL).Materials and methods. There have been analyzed scientific reports of the European Food Safety Organization on substantiation of acceptable operator exposure levels (AOEL), legislative and regulatory documents of Ukraine on hygienic regulation of pesticides in the working zone air. The analysis makes it possible to outline ways for harmonization of methodological approaches to the hygienic standardization of pesticides in the air of the working zone, the purpose of which is to preserve the database of domestic data on hygienic regulation of pesticides in production and the environment with careful analysis of toxicological properties of active ingredients of pesticides, being the basis for definition of AOEL. Results. As a result of the research a way for definition of inhalation equivalents of the acceptable exposure level (IE AEL) has been proposed using a Fluri formula, in which the amount of a substance in the air is combined with the absorbed effective inhalation dose. In this, an internal permissible dossage is transformed into a permissible concentration in the working zone air with account of human physiological parameters (body weight, respiratory volume), the duration of work shift, and that the absorbed dose of a substance when inhaled is taken as 100% of the exposure dose. The comparative analysis of IE AEL values with experimentally established MACw.z.a. has confirmed the applicability of the proposed algorithm for hygienic regulation of safe use of pesticides.Conclusions. The proposed method of determining IE AEL, based on the wide analysis and volume of toxicological data, increases the reliability of standards from the standpoint of safety for the health of workers. The use of this method will help to decrease the material costs and reduce the number of studies using laboratory animals according to the bioethical concept of three «R» (Reduction, Replacement and Refinement); in the short term to revise a standard when appear new toxicological or epidemiological data on a pesticide; improve the practice of pesticide application in Ukraine, for providing high protection level of workers' health.

Key words: pesticides, inhalation equivalent of the acceptable exposure level, hygienic regulation, working zone air.

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