Aerospace Toxicology Overview: Aerial Application and Cabin Air Quality - Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology - page 20

2.4 Aerial Application Safety

Aviation authorities have long been concerned about the toxic effects of agricultural
chemicals on agriculture pilots. In the former Soviet Union, aerial applicators were
required to maintain records of the chemicals used for crop spraying and the
duration of spraying (Cullen and Hill 2006 ). In the USA, toxicological problems
associated with aerial applications were recognized in the early 1960s, and a con-
siderable number of applied studies were conducted at the US Department of
Transportation Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) Civil Aerospace Medical
Institute in Oklahoma City, OK, to enhance the safety of agricultural pilots and their
support personnel. The cogent studies conducted at the FAA's Civil Aerospace
Medical Institute are summarized in Table 1 .

2.5 Agricultural Chemical Exposure Monitoring

The health risk of aerial spraying is well known for pilots and ground maintenance
workers. Therefore, such agricultural workers in the aerial spraying industry must be
placed on occupational surveillance programs designed to detect the earliest toxic
exposures to these chemicals. Since organophosphorus compounds and carbamates
inhibit acetylcholinesterase and other cholinesterases, activities of these enzymes in
red blood cells, plasma, or whole blood (30-50% inhibition) are routinely measured
for monitoring exposures to these insecticides (Cullen and Hill 2006 ; Gossel and
Bricker 1994a ; Lauwerys 1996 ). In addition, residues of pesticides or their metabolites
in body luids may be measured directly. Examples of tentative maximum permissi-
ble concentrations for parent pesticides and/or their metabolites are (1) 0.5 mg of
p -nitrophenol per g of creatinine in urine for parathion and 10 mg of naphthol per g
of creatinine in urine for carbaryl, (2) 15 mg of dieldrin per 100 mL of blood, 2 mg of
lindane per 100 mL of blood, and 5 mg of endrin per 100 mL of blood, (3) 30 mg
of hexachlorobenzene per 100 mL of blood and/or presence of 2,4,5-trichlorophenol
in urine. (4) 0.05 mg of pentachlorophenol per 100 mL of plasma and/or 1 mg of
pentachlorophenol per g of creatinine in urine, and (5) detection of 2,4-D and
2,3,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid in urine (Lauwerys 1996 ).

3 Cabin Air Contamination

3.1 Aviation Cabin Air Quality

The quality of air in aircraft cabins has been a topic of debate and discussion since
at least the 1970s. Aerospace air pollution issues - that is, cabin air quality of air-
craft and space vehicles - have been succinctly addressed in an article by Patterson
and Rayman ( 1996 ). These issues are viewed in the context of the fact that crews