Methodological approaches to hygienic assessment of safe distances when performing agricultural work using unmanned aircraft systems

Introduction. Methods and technologies for assessing and managing risk are becoming the basic mechanisms for ensuring the protection of the health in citizens and the environment from the harmful effects of environmental factors. This is explained by the presence of constant threats associated with the influence of these factors, including the use of modern methods of introducing chemicals during agricultural work. Agricultural unmanned aircraft systems (AUAS) designed to spray pesticides are increasingly being used around the world. The basis for the safe use of pesticides for the population is to minimize the possibility of their spread through the air and settling on the soil outside the treated area, which is ensured by compliance with hygienic requirements for equipment used in agriculture, application regulations, weather conditions during processing, and the size of the sanitary gap between the treated area and settlements, water bodies, etc.

The purpose of this study was to substantiate the safe distances from areas of agricultural application of pesticides using AUAS to objects regulated in accordance with sanitary legislation (settlements, sources of household, drinking and cultural water use, etc.).

Materials and methods. The demolition formed during the application of pesticides of various purposes using AUAS has been studied. The content of drugs carried away by air currents was monitored by measuring the concentration of the substance in the atmospheric air and deposited on the “blue ribbon” filters placed in Petri dishes outside the processing band.

Results. The maximum concentrations of substances in the atmospheric air at all distances from the treatment site were below their hygienic standards for atmospheric air. There is a clear decrease in concentrations in air samples as they move away from the treated area and a nonlinear decrease in concentrations in sedimentation samples with the presence of weak local maxima.

Limitations. A small sample of the studied substances, due to the limited time of the study, does not allow unambiguously identifying the patterns of drift formation depending on their physical-chemical properties, in particular volatility, molecular weight, etc.

Conclusion. The data obtained indicate to the need to continue research for a reasoned correction or confirmation, proposed based on the results of the tests, of the safe distance (700 m) from the sites treated with pesticides to the facilities normalized in accordance with sanitary legislation.

Compliance with ethical standards. This study does not require the conclusion of a biomedical ethics committee or other documents.

Contribution:
Rakitskii V.N. – concept and design of research, scientific guidance;
Kuzmin S.V. – scientific guidance;
Bereznyak I.V. – concept and design of research, material collection and data processing, analysis and interpretation of results, statistical processing, writing text;
Mishina A.L. – concept and design of research, collection of material, data processing and visualization, analysis and interpretation of results, writing text;
Veshchemova T.E. – literature data collection, data processing, writing text;
Artemova O.V. – material collection and data processing.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgement. The study was carried out within the framework of the of the Federal Service for Supervision in Protection of the Rights of Consumer and Man Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) industry program “Scientific substantiation of the national system for ensuring sanitary and epidemiological well-being, health risk management and improving the quality of life of the Russian population” (2021–2025).

Received: October 28, 2024 / Accepted: November 19, 2024 / Published: December 17, 2024