Safety measures

Arrangement and conduct of preventive preliminary and periodic medical examinations should be provided by the heads of enterprises and other entities using pesticides and agrochemicals.
Persons who have industrial contact with pesticides and agrochemicals must undergo preliminary medical examinations upon admission to work and periodic medical examinations in the prescribed manner.
Persons who have not passed a medical examination or have medical contraindications are not allowed to work with pesticides and agrochemicals.

It is prohibited to use labor of persons under eighteen years of age when working with pesticides. It is prohibited to use the labor of women during the transportation, loading and unloading of pesticides, as well as the performance by women under the age of thirty-five years of operations related to the use of pesticides in crop production, livestock, poultry and fur farming. It is not allowed to use the labor of women in any work in contact with pesticides and agrochemicals during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Men over 55 and women over 50 are not allowed to work with pesticides. At enterprises with more than 300 employees, paramedic health posts are equipped with a set of equipment in accordance with current standards. Those working in contact with pesticides and agrochemicals are provided with special nutrition in accordance with current requirements, as well as protective creams for the prevention of skin diseases."

All workers should be trained in the rules of providing first self-help and mutual assistance in emergency situations. The duration of work with pesticides should not exceed six hours, and with extremely dangerous (1st hazard class) - four hours, with two hours' reworking at work that is not associated with toxic substances. Work with pesticides in a personal subsidiary farm should not exceed one hour. Before starting work, all persons involved in loading and unloading operations, reloading, transporting pesticides must be instructed on precautions to ensure personal and public safety and prevent environmental pollution, as well as to provide first aid in case of poisoning.

Persons involved in work with pesticides must strictly observe the rules of personal hygiene. It is forbidden to take off personal protective equipment, eat, drink or smoke at workplaces. Eating should be done in a household room. Before eating, you must remove personal protective equipment, wash your hands, face with soap, and rinse your mouth. Pesticides must be stored in specially designated warehouses and containers, storage of pesticides (plant protection products) and agrochemicals in bulk is prohibited.

Standing of the storekeeper and other persons in the warehouse is allowed only for the period of receiving and dispensing pesticides (plant protection products), agrochemicals and mineral fertilizers and other short-term work. Standing of unauthorized persons who are not directly involved in work in the warehouse is not allowed. Before starting work in warehouses equipped with mechanical exhaust ventilation, the premises must be ventilated for 30 minutes, and in the absence of forced ventilation - through ventilation. In places where pesticides (plant protection products), agrochemicals and mineral fertilizers are stored, information on personal hygiene rules and the provision of necessary assistance in case of poisoning is posted in prominent places.

Working with pesticides is allowed only with the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). Safety glasses are required to protect the eyes. To prevent the glasses from fogging, you should use special products made of film (put inside protective glasses), pencils or liquids. To protect hands when working with liquid preparations, use rubber gloves technical, latex, industrial made of latex, butyl rubber. The use of medical and household rubber gloves is prohibited.

To protect the feet, boots are used, the top of which is made of yuft leather, the soles are made of acid- and alkali-resistant and oil-resistant rubber. It is allowed to use men's rubber boots designed to protect against dust, acids, alkalis; when working with dust-like preparations - canvas shoe covers. Respiratory protection means are chosen taking into account the nature of air pollution, the specifics of production operations. When working with moderately hazardous low-volatile substances in the form of aerosols, dust (aerosol) respirators are required.

To protect the respiratory system when working with volatile compounds, as well as drugs of the 1st and 2nd hazard classes, it is necessary to use gas masks, universal respirators with appropriate cartridges, industrial gas masks with replaceable boxes. To protect against organomercury drugs, a gas mask of the “G” brand should be used, for phosphorus, chlorine and other organic substances - a gas cartridge of the “A” brand with sealed goggles. In the absence of the specified respirators and a cartridge for them, work with these substances, especially with concentrated forms, should be carried out in industrial gas masks with boxes of appropriate brands equipped with aerosol filters (on the box there is a white vertical stripe).

During the fumigating (gassing) premises with extremely dangerous drugs, it is necessary to use industrial gas masks with brown boxes"" A "". When working with highly volatile pesticides (methyl bromide, metallic chloride), special safety measures must be observed. Even a short-term stay without personal protective equipment in the storage sections of these preparations, carrying out loading and unloading operations, even with single container places, is not allowed. If there are signs of a violation of the integrity of the package and the presence of high concentrations of drugs in the air, hose masks are used. The persons responsible for carrying out the work must draw up a passport for each gas mask box or respirator cartridge. The conditions of use are noted in the passport (name of drugs, method of application, number of hours worked)."

Used respirator cartridges, filters and gas mask boxes must be replaced in a timely manner after the expiration of the protective effect, as well as at the first appearance of the smell of pesticide under the mask. Waste filters, boxes and cartridges must be destroyed in the places designated for this purpose. When working with low-hazard and moderately hazardous dust-like preparations, overalls with protective properties marking in accordance with current state standards are required. In case of contact with drugs of the 1st and 2nd hazard classes, as well as with pesticide solutions, special clothing made of mixed fabrics with impregnation should be used, as well as additional personal protective equipment for the skin, for which cotton suits are used, an apron should be put on over the suit and sleeves made of film and rubberized materials.

For work in winter in unheated rooms, they issue an insulated suit consisting of a jacket with a fastened warm lining, a fastening hood and trousers. When fumigating closed premises, seed and food materials, containers and raw materials, and with their subsequent degassing, overalls made of fabric with a PVC film coating and a set of underwear should be used as overalls. Protective equipment must be cleaned at the end of each work shift. They are removed in the following sequence: without removing from hands, rinse rubber gloves, first in a disinfecting solution (3-5% solution of soda ash, milk of lime), and then in water; remove boots, overalls, goggles and respirator; rinse the gloves again in a disinfecting solution and water, remove them. Rubber face pieces and the outer surface of gas mask boxes and respiratory cartridges are neutralized with a soap and soda solution (25 g of soap + + 5 g of soda ash per 1 liter of water) or 1% DIAS solution using a brush, then rinsed in clean water and dried. The face parts of the gas mask and respirator are disinfected with a cotton swab dipped in a 0.5% solution of potassium permanganate or in alcohol.

Overalls every day after work must be cleaned of dust with a vacuum cleaner. The cleaned overalls are hung out for ventilation and drying under a canopy or in the open air for 8-12 hours. In addition to the mechanical removal of pesticides and agrochemicals from overalls, the latter should be subjected to periodic washing and decontamination as it becomes contaminated, but at least after six work shifts. Workwear is washed in a centralized manner in laundries that have appropriate conditions for washing and drying workwear and disposal of wastewater; contaminated workwear must be delivered to the laundry in closed boxes. The overalls are pre-soaked in a hot 0.5% soda solution for 6-8 hours, after which they are washed 2-3 times in a hot soapy-soda solution. When issuing personal protective equipment, the date of receipt is recorded, and in the case of using funds with a limited time of protective action, the period for replacing spent elements. The selection and control over the correctness of their use are assigned to the persons responsible for work with pesticides.

Personal protective equipment must be assigned to each worker for the entire period of work; transfer to another person can be carried out only after washing and neutralization. PPE must be stored in designated areas; it is not allowed to store them together with pesticides, take overalls and safety shoes home, wear them after work. If a worker is poisoned with pesticides, he needs to be given first aid. General first aid measures, as a rule, do not depend on the nature of the poison that caused the poisoning, and should be aimed at stopping its entry into the body.

If a poisonous substance comes into contact with the skin, it must be carefully removed, without rubbing, with cotton or a piece of cloth, then washed off with soap and water, and the eyes should be rinsed with plenty of water. When breathing weakens, you should bring ammonia to your nose; in case of suffocation, ensure that oxygen is inhaled from the oxygen bag until shortness of breath and cyanosis decrease. In case of cessation of breathing, it is necessary to do artificial respiration, after unbuttoning the clothes, clearing the oral cavity from mucus and stretching out the sunken tongue. In case of cardiac arrest, an external chest massage is performed. The victim is placed on a hard surface, the legs are slightly raised, and the chest is freed from clothing. Assisting with vigorous hand movements rhythmically presses on the chest 60-70 times a minute (the sternum should bend by 3-5 cm). Cardiac massage is performed before the arrival of the doctor. In places where pesticides are handled, a first aid kit should be provided to provide first aid (first aid) with the necessary set of medicines.

Warehouses accumulate a large volume of pesticides that are unusable, with an exceeded shelf life. As a result of long-term storage, the integrity of containers is violated, mixtures are formed, products become depersonalized, and the environmental and fire hazard of warehouses increases. One of the stages in the preparation of pesticides for disposal is the identification of impersonal drugs, as well as their mixtures by appearance, color, original container, water solubility, density, bulk density, chemical composition (the most accurate identification). Organization and technology of storage of decommissioned pesticides should be carried out only in warehouses in a whole container, excluding their loss, volatilization, environmental pollution; it is also necessary to exclude access to them by unauthorized persons, the possibility of theft, use in personal and subsidiary plots.

In the absence of warehouses in farms that ensure the safety of rejected pesticides, it is necessary to carry out centralized storage. Transportation of pesticides and agrochemicals is carried out only in specially equipped vehicles and in accordance with the requirements of the rules for the transport of dangerous goods in force for various types of transport. When transporting pesticides and agrochemicals, the possibility of a negative impact of drugs on human health and the environment must be excluded. The use of specialized vehicles for other purposes is not allowed, as well as the joint transportation of other goods with pesticides and agrochemicals. During transportation, it is prohibited for unauthorized persons to stay on vehicles. Loading and unloading operations must be mechanized. After completion of work, vehicles are thoroughly washed and rendered harmless.

All neutralization measures must be carried out using PPE in the open air on specially equipped areas, overpasses or in special well-ventilated rooms on the territory of the chemicalization point, warehouse. Utilization of toxic industrial waste, including pesticides, is regulated by a number of regulatory and methodological materials. Liquid and solid combustible preparations can be destroyed by thermal neutralization (incineration); the method of disposal is provided only for non-combustible materials. The choice of the disposal method, as well as its parameters, are determined by the preparative form, physicochemical properties of the active substance and the constituent components of pesticides.