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The principles of risk assessment and risk management have been applied to the use of pesticides in greenhouses. Pesticide efficacy and safety require con sideration of a number of exposure scenarios, and the optimal management procedure may need to take into account more than one of these. Worker exposure may occur during pesticide spraying and the subsequent handling of plant material. Exclusion and the wearing of personal protective equipment are occupational hygiene practices that are used to control human uptake aris ing from these exposures. The principal factor affecting exposure levels in air and their decay is the ventilation characteristics of the greenhouse, and is therefore site-specific. As the principal route of exposure of workers is dermal, and rates of penetration of pesticide through protective clothing vary, choice of protective clothing is also important. This paper demonstrates that there is a need for site-specific occupational hygiene advice when undertaking work in greenhouses.

Although disasters may take many forms, they include the toxic consequences of large-scale exposure to chemicals due to nature, major accident or deliberate terrorism. This chapter first examines some of the definitions associated with major accident hazards. It then classifies and examines major incidents involving toxic chemicals, including those resulting from nature, those resulting from human activity and those resulting from the interaction between nature and human activity. Included under human activity are disasters arising from escapes from industrial plant, from fire, from food and drink and from environmental pollution. Finally disaster prevention and mitigation is examined, with particular reference to the toxicological inputs into land use and emergency planning. Keywords: risk analysis; major industrial and natural hazards involving toxicants; examples; fire; food-supply contamination; industrial plant failure; meteorological events; terrorist attacks