Operators are persons who are involved in activities relating to the application of a pesticide, such as mixing/loading the product into the application equipment, operation of the sprayer, and emptying or cleaning the sprayer and containers after use. Operators may be either professionals (e.g. farmers, contract applicators, commercial pest control operators or government staff involved in vector control) or amateur users (e.g. home garden users). So far, the Toolkit includes risk assessment for professional users.

Operators in agriculture will generally mostly be exposed to pesticides through contact with spray cloud (via dermal or inhalation routes) or indirectly through contact with pesticide deposits (dermal). Operator exposure likely to occur under the proposed conditions of use should not have an adverse effect on persons using the pesticide.

Operator risk assessment should in principle be conducted for all pesticides and all proposed uses, unless it can be convincingly shown that operator exposure will be negligible. Such a risk assessment should take into account the dose, application method and frequency, climatic conditions, and personal protective equipment, among others.

The following assessment methods are available:

Operators are persons who are involved in activities relating to the application of a pesticide, such as mixing/loading the product into the application equipment, operation of the sprayer, and emptying or cleaning the sprayer and containers after use. Operators may be either professionals (e.g. farmers, contract applicators, commercial pest control operators or government staff involved in vector control) or amateur users (e.g. home garden users). So far, the Toolkit includes risk assessment for professional users.

Operators in public health will generally mostly be exposed to pesticides through contact with spray cloud (via dermal or inhalation routes). Operator exposure likely to occur under the proposed conditions of use should not have an adverse effect on persons using the pesticide.

Operator risk assessment should in principle be conducted for all pesticides and all proposed uses, unless it can be convincingly shown that operator exposure will be negligible. Such a risk assessment should take into account the dose, application method and frequency, climatic conditions, and personal protective equipment, among others.

The following assessment methods are available:

Workers are persons who, as part of their job, enter an area that has been treated previously with a pesticide (e.g. for pruning, cutting, picking, harvesting, pest inspection) or who handle a crop that has been treated with a pesticide (e.g. sorting, bundling, packing).
 
Workers in agriculture will often be exposed to pesticides through contact with foliage and fruits. Crop maintenance and harvesting activities include frequent contacts with the crop, and dermal exposure is therefore generally considered to be the most important exposure route.
 
Inhalation exposure may be to vapour and/or airborne aerosols (including dust). Of particular relevance are indoor treatments (e.g. in greenhouses), where inhalation can be a relevant route of exposure for workers after re-entry. After outdoor applications of pesticides, vapour and aerosols tend to dissipate more rapidly, leading to lower inhalation potential than from indoor treatments. Worker inhalation estimates after outdoor applications are therefore only necessary in exceptional cases (e.g. for very volatile substances).
 
Oral exposure may occur secondarily to dermal exposure, by transfer of hand to mouth. However, workers exposure by this route is generally assumed to be negligible in comparison with that via skin and inhalation.
 
Worker risk assessment should in principle be conducted for all pesticides and all proposed uses where workers may be re-entering a crop after pesticide application, or will handle treated crops. Such risk assessment should take into account the dose, application method and frequency, climatic conditions, and personal protective equipment, among others.
 
The following assessment methods are available:

If a Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) has already been adopted for the pesticide active ingredient and the commodity or commodity group, the residue evaluation can focus on dietary risk assessment. The regulatory authority may have established the MRL based on local residue trial data, or it may have adopted the international Codex MRL.
 
The assessments that can be done in this situation are shown in the flow chart below.

If a Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) has not yet been adopted for the pesticide active ingredient and the commodity or commodity group, a comprehensive residue evaluation generally has to be carried out.
 
In a comprehensive residue evaluation, for a given pesticide and commodity (-group), the registrar generally follows the following steps:

    Establish residue definition(s) of the pesticide, both for dietary risk assessment and for MRL compliance monitoring.
    Estimate residue levels of the pesticide in the relevant commodity(ies) on the basis of Good Agricultural Practice (GAP).
    Assess dietary risks of the expected residues, both following long-term and short-term exposure.
    Define maximum residue limits (MRLs) of the pesticide for the relevant commodity(ies), which can be used to monitor and enforce the GAPs authorized by the registration.

Each of these steps can be assessed locally, or an existing evaluation from another regulatory body may be accepted by the registrar. The latter is referred to as “bridging” from an existing evaluation. Whether a complete residue assessment is done locally, or is bridged (partly or entirely), depends on national policy, available resources and the similarity between the national situation and the already evaluated one.
 
The various paths that can be chosen when conducting a residue evaluation are shown in the flow chart below.

The use of a pesticide may affect non-target arthropods living above-ground, such bees and other pollinators, natural enemies of crops pests, or other arthropods. This, in turn, may have an adverse impact on agricultural production (e.g. by reducing pollination or natural regulation of pests), or other economic activities such as honey, beeswax or silk production. It may indirectly disturb populations of animals that feed on arthropods (e.g. birds, reptiles, mammals). Pesticides may also affect biodiversity, since arthropods form an important part of animal biodiversity.
Methods for hazard and risk assessment of a pesticide for above-ground terrestrial arthropods are described in this section. Arthropods living in the soil are covered in a different section. Aquatic arthropods are discussed as part of aquatic risk assessment.

note: a group of non-target arthropods should be selected from the 4th selection box above to show the assessment methods for that group.