Prioritization of pesticide for agricultural usage in South Korea : an update = 국내에서 사용되는 농약들에 대한 우선순위 : 업데이트

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Abstract

Prioritization of Pesticide for Agricultural Usage in South Korea : An Update

Che Song Ee

Department of Epidemiology
Graduate School of Public Health, Korea University
(Supervising Professor: Won Jin Lee, MD, Ph.D)

Background: The adverse health effects on humans, resulting from exposure to pesticides, are well documented. They include chronic neurotoxicity, endocrine disruption, immune impacts, genotoxicity, mutagenicity and carcinogenesis. Recently, pesticides were used as instruments of murder in South Korea (e.g. so-ju, sprite, soybean milk). Also, between 2006 and 2010, the overall proportion of pesticide poisoning among total suicides was 20.8%. This study reviews the agricultural pesticide usage and hazardous pesticides through quantitative evaluation, with special emphasis on five adverse health effects due to pesticide exposure in South Korea.

Methods: Data was collected on the usage of agricultural pesticides, through agriculture-related databases. Criteria for the hazard categorization of identified individual active ingredients were established as per the US Environmental Protection Agency classification for carcinogenicity, World Health Organization classification for acute toxicity, European Union prioritization list for endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and Pesticide Action Network pesticide database for neurologic toxicity and reproductive toxicity.

Results: Pesticides used in South Korea between 2010 and 2014, were prioritized for screening by taking into account the volume of usage and their five adverse health effects. The amount of totally 403 pesticides used from 2010 to 2014, was 106,773,124 kg; this included 127 insecticides, 132 fungicides, and 105 herbicides. The 50 selected most hazardous of the 403 pesticides accounted for 83.8% of the total weight of agricultural pesticides used, as recorded in the agrochemical year book, including unidentified substances. The 50 pesticides with the most-used active ingredient were machine oil, followed by mancozeb and glyphosate. Finally, a total of 50 pesticides were recommended for intensive regulation in South Korea. The hazardous active ingredients prioritized in the 50 pesticides were glyphosate, followed by diazinon and mancozeb. In conclusion, the authors describe here the usage and toxicity of overall agricultural pesticides, and provide a list of the pesticides that require priority regulation. Intensive effects emphasize the importance of a regulatory strategy to prevent further accidents resulting from exposure to the 50 identified hazardous pesticides.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Contents
• Abstract
• I. Introduction 1
• II. Methods 3
• 1. Usage data 3
• 2. Criteria for usage and health effects 3
• 3. Scoring of hazardous health effect of pesticides 4
• 4. Adjusted-hazard score ranking 5
• III. Results 7
• IV. Discussion 10
• 1. Use of pesticides 10
• 2. Identification of hazardous pesticides 11
• 3. Changes in pesticides used since 2012 13
• 4. Comparison with previous study 14
• V. Limitation 16
• Reference 32
• Abstract(Korean language) 35