Aerospace Toxicology Overview: Aerial Application and Cabin Air Quality - Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology - page 17

2 Agricultural Aviation

2.1 Application of Chemicals in Agriculture

The use of aerial application is increasing throughout the world to help address
increasing food production needs. Many types of agricultural chemicals are applied
to crops, crop land, pastures, rangeland, or forests by hand, or by ground or aerial
equipment; such agents include insecticides, herbicides, growth modiiers, fertiliz-
ers, and others. Many of the chemicals used can be toxic to human beings and may
cause serious symptoms and possibly death (Patterson and Rayman 1996 ). Handling
of commercial agricultural chemical preparations (formulations) is involved during
aerial application programs, and application incidents and accidents do occur. Some
actual examples of such incidents are (1) an experienced aerial applicator pilot, who
accidentally spilled parathion on his clothes while pouring the concentrate from a
55-gallon drum four days earlier, and who afterward became irritable and introverted,
was not feeling well, and had a headache on the day he crashed his plane, (2) a pilot,
who was exposed to drifting parathion and required atropine therapy, lew into a tree
during pull-up, (3) an aircraft connector loosened after takeoff and resulted in the
spraying of a mixture containing parathion in the pilot's face, saturating his body,
and causing him to lose control of the plane, which crashed, and (4) a pilot was
splashed with a defoliant during a light, which caused a crash, almost resulting
in the pilot's death (Mohler and Harper 1966 ). Such accidental exposures and
the development of aerial dust allergies in pilots were topics of a group discussion
on protecting agriculture pilots 45 years ago (Mohler and Harper 1966 ); therefore,
this problem is a long existing one. In general, agricultural chemicals are toxic
(Cullen and Hill 2006 ; Ecobichon 1996 ), and if occupational safety and precaution-
ary measures are not properly taken, exposures of applicator personnel (i.e., aircraft
loaders, mixers, and agricultural aircraft accident investigators) to such chemicals
could lead to acute or chronic poisonings. In addition, poisonings of working
agricultural pilots may contribute to aviation accidents. Such poisoning incidents,
when they occur, may result from exposures to a single or multiple chemicals (or
chemical mixtures).

2.2 Pesticidal Toxicology and Agricultural Aviation

The toxicology of organophosphorus and organochlorine insecticides has been
well covered in the literature (Cullen and Hill 2006 ; Lauwerys 1996 ). Although no
longer used except for malarial programs in Africa, dichlorodiphenyltrichloro-
ethane (DDT) is the most studied organochlorine insecticide, and has also served