Environmental Management Tool Kit for Obsolete Pesticides - Volume 6

Book excerpt: Environmental Management Tool Kit Volume 6 is intended to provide practical methods to assist countries in the formulation of strategies for the management of pesticide contaminated land. As risk reduction largely depends on the accuracy of site investigation and associated risk assessment this document is meant to be used in close conjunction with EMTK Volume 5, the outputs of which are critical in the design of pesticide contaminated land environmental management plans. The previous volumes of the FAO EMTK series (Volumes 1- 4) are designed to assist countries with the risk management of obsolete pesticide stocks. From a wider perspective the approaches used to deal with obsolete stocks and contaminated land are similar. For both contaminated land and obsolete stocks the first step requires a preliminary risk assessment to prioritize sites in terms of urgency for risk management and to estimate the absolute risk. Due to the nature of contaminated land, an additional series of assessment steps (further described by EMTK5) are required to understand what is going on below ground and how this affects risk, that are not required for obsolete stocks, the risks for which can largely be understood from a single visit to each site. Where the risk management of obsolete stocks and contaminated land differ is in the number and types of disposal options and risk reduction techniques required. As risk management of contaminated land requires dealing with larger sources, usually at lower concentrations, and the escape of and exposure to contaminants in many different ways.