Risk mitigation measures are actions that should be taken to reduce the risk for human health or the environment of the use of a pesticide.

Examples of risk mitigation measures for public health pesticides are the use of personal protective equipment to reduce occupational exposure, removal of food items from houses or rooms that have to be fumigated or treated against malaria mosquitos, applying no-entry periods after fumigation of houses or rooms, using child-resistant packaging for household pesticides, etc.

Many risk mitigation measures that are used in agriculture can also be applied for public health pesticides. However, certain uses of public health pesticides will require specific measures to reduce risks. These include domestic uses and vector control applications, which may require risk mitigation measures not normally applied in agriculture.

The Risk Mitigation module in the Toolkit provides an inventory of risk mitigation measures that can be used to protect human health and the environment. Depending on the use of the public health pesticide, measures can be identified to limit human and environmental exposure. For public health pesticides, the most common risk mitigation measures are found under:

• Limiting occupational exposure
• Limiting residential and bystander exposure
• Limiting exposure to household pesticides
• Limiting surface water exposure and adverse effects on aquatic organisms

The Risk Mitigation module also provides feasibility check tools, to help regulators assess whether specific risk mitigation measures are likely to be feasible under local conditions of use.