CRITERIA FOR A RECOMMENDED STANDARD OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE DURING THE MANUFACTURE AND FORMULATION OF PESTICIDES criteria for a recommended standard... OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE DURING THE MANUFACTURE AND FORMULATION OF PESTICIDES * U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE Public Health Service Center for Disease Control National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health July 1978 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 DISCLAIMER Mention of company names or products does not constitute endorsement by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. DHEW (NIOSH) Publication No. 78-174 PREFACE The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 emphasizes the need for standards to protect the health and provide for the safety of workers occupationally exposed to an ever-increasing number of potential hazards. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has implemented a formal system of research, with priorities determined on the basis of specified indices, to provide relevant data from which valid criteria for effective standards can be derived. Recommended standards for occupational exposure, which are the result of this work, are based on the effects of exposure on health. The Secretary of Labor will weigh these recommendations along with other considerations, such as feasibility and means of implementation, in developing regulatory standards. Successive reports will be presented as research and epideiriologic studies are completed and as sampling and analytical methods are developed. Criteria and standards will be reviewed periodically to ensure continuing protection of workers. The contributions to this document on pesticide manufacturing and formulating industries by NIOSH staff members, the review consultants, the reviewer selected by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), other Federal agencies, and by Robert B. O'Connor, M.D., NICSH consultant in occupational medicine, are gratefully acknowledged. iii The views expressed and conclusions reached in this document, together with the recommendations for a standard, are those of NIOSH. They are not necessarily those of the consultants, the reviewer selected by the ACGIH, or other Federal agencies that evaluated the document. The comments from the review consultants and other reviewers have been considered carefully and, together with the criteria document, have been sent to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for consideration in setting occupational safety and health standards. The review consultants. Federal agencies, and professional society to which this document was submitted are listed on pages vi, vii, and viii. - D. ational Institute Safety and Health The Division of Criteria Documentation and Standards Development, Nationa Institute for Occupational Safety an CL (-J Health, had primary responsibility for the development of the criteria and recommended standard for pesticides. Jimmy L. Perkins of this Division served as criteria manager. JRB Associates, Inc., developed the basic information for consideration by NIOSH staff and consultants under contract No. 210-77-0006. The Division review of this document was provided by Jon R. ilay, Ph.D. (Chairman), J. Henry Wills, Ph.D., Charles C. Hassett, Ph.D., Clara H. Williams, Ph.D., David Brown and A. Blair Smith, M.D. (Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies), and James Gideon (Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering) . v REVIEW CONSULTANTS ON PESTICIDES Dennis Chamot, Ph.D. Department for Professional Employees AFL/Cl 0 Washington, D.C. 20006 Frank Lyman, a.D. Consultant in Medical Toxicology North Beach, New Jersey 08008 Keith Long, Ph.D. Institute of Agricultural Medicine University of Iowa Oakdale, Iowa 52319 Keith Maddy, D.V.M., M.P.H., Ph.D. The Pesticide Worker Health and Safety Unit California Department of Food and Agriculture Sacramento, California 95814 William steffan Supervising Industrial Hygiene Engineer Occupational Health Branch Public Health Division State Department of Health Berkeley, California 94704 John Tobin, M.D. American Cyanamid Company Wayne, New Jersey 07470 Stever. Wodka International Representative Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union Washington, D.C. 20036 vi FEDERAL AGENCIES Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service Department of Defense Department of the Army Army Environmental Hygiene Agency Department of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Navy Environmental Health Center Department of the Air Force Office of the Surgeon General Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Food and Drug Administration National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Environmental Protection Agency Health Effects Research Laboratory Office of Research and Development Office of Pesticide Proarams PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists William Poppendorf, Ph.D. University of California at Berkeley vili CONTENTS Page PREFACE iii REVIEW CONSULTANTS ON PESTICIDES vi FEDERAL AGENCIES vii PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY viii I. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A STANDARD FOR PESTICIDE MANUFACTURING AND FORMULATING INDUSTRIES Section 1 - Medical 6 Section 2 - Labeling and Posting 11 Sect ion 3 - Personal Protective Clothing and Equipment 13 Section 4 - Informing Employees of Hazards from Pe sticides 19 Section 5 - Work Practices 21 Section 6 - Sanitation and Personal Hygiene 29 Section 7 - Engineering Controls 3 3 Section 8 - Monitoring and Recordkeeping 33 II. INTRODUCTION 35 III. HEALTH HAZARDS FROM EXPOSURE IN PESTICIDE MANUFACTURE AND FORMULATION 39 Industry Characteristics and Extent of Exposure 43 Pesticide Properties and Worker Exposure Routes 49 General Toxicologic Effects of Pesticides 60 Human Health Effects 73 Effects in Experimental Animals 131 IV. ENGINEERING CONTROLS 204 Manufacturing Processes 206 Formulating Processes 2 09 Equipment and Process Controls 215 IX CONTENTS (Continued) Page V. WORK PRACTICES 2 33 Monitoring 234 Personal Protective Clothing and Equipment 251 Housekeeping, Hygiene, and Sanitation 270 Emergency Procedures 275 Maintenance 279 Support of Work Practices 282 VI. DEVELOPMENT OF THE STANDARD 291 Need for the Standard 291 Relationship to Other Standards 292 Form of the Standard 295 Basis for the Recommended Standard 298 VII. RESEARCH NEEDS 311 VIII. REFERENCES 313 IX. APPENDIX I - Classification of Pesticides 343 X. APPENDIX II - Methods for Biochemical Determination of Cholinesterase Activity in Blood 371 XI. APPENDIX III - OSHA Exposure Limits for Certain Pesticides 378 XII. APPENDIX IV - NIOSH Recommended Exposure Limits for Certain Pesticides 381 XIII. APPENDIX V - Material Safety Data Sheet 384 XIV. TABLES AND FIGURES 391 x I. 'RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A STANDARD FOR PESTICIDE MANUFACTURING AND FORMULATING INDUSTRIES The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends that employee exposure to pesticides in manufacturing and formulating workplaces be controlled by adherence to the following sections. The recommended standard is designed to protect the health and safety of employees in pesticide manufacturing and formulating facilities over their working lifetime. Compliance with. all sections of the recommendations will establish an increased level of control over the workplace environment of pesticide manufacturers and formulators and should thus prevent or greatly reduce adverse effects of pesticides on the health and safety of employees. Sufficient technology exists to permit compliance with the recommended standard. The criteria and standard will be subject to review and revision, as necessary. Environmental (workplace air) limits are not included in the recommended standard. Such values have been promulgated for many pesticides by The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and NIOSH has previously recommended such limits individually for various pesticides (see Appendices III and IV). NIOSH recommends compliance with promulgated environmental limits and adoption of new environmental limits in those cases where the NIOSH recommended environmental limits 1 differ from those already promulgated. These include the limits recommended for substances such as parathion, methyl parathion, creosote, ethylene dibromide, and dinitro-o-cresol. In this document, emphasis has been placed or, work practices, engineering controls, and medical surveillance programs to protect workers from the adverse effects of pesticide exposure in manufacturing and formulating operations. Anumber of factors led NIOSH to this decision. First, workers in pesticide manufacturing and formulating operations are exposed to a large number of different chemicals and substances. Sampling and analytical methods to determine airborne exposure levels for each substance would need to be highly sophisticated. Second, exposure via other routes, especially dermal, has proven to be of critical importance for many pesticides. The relationship between dermal exposure hazards and airborne levels is scientifically tenuous, and adherence to environmental (workplace air) limits does not always protect the employee from significant dermal exposure. Third, NIOSH believes that immediate action is needed to protect workers in pesticide manufacturing and formulating plants. The time required to evaluate all the documented toxic effects and to establish scientifically valid environmental (workplace air) limits for