Minimizing occupational exposure to pesticides: Reliability of analytical methodology

In the gross field of occupational human exposure to pesticide chemicals we are concerned with unintentional exposures of man during manufacturing, packaging, formulating, formulation packaging, spray mixing, application, and the postapplication field operations of cultivation, irrigation, pruning, thinning, and harvesting. The epidemiological history of authenticated episodes of pesticide poisonings indict manufacturing, packaging, formulating, formulation packaging, application, and harvesting operations, with “application” including the filling (“mixing”) of the application equipment as well as the application operation itself. In the United States the field operations of cultivation, irrigation, pruning, and thinning seem to be almost devoid of authenticated poisoning episodes, although the opportunities for considerable exposures to pesticide chemicals certainly exist for hand weeding, pruning, and thinning operations [see Gunther et al. (1977), pp. 4 and 5, for examples of such documented cases in California].