2012, April: Workshop on Occupational health risk assessment and criteria

First steps have been made towards setting up an assessment of risks for human health during a workshop in Debre Zeit. This will be a new item to evaluate in the registration procedure of pesticides in Ethiopia. Attendants of the workshop were representatives of the APHRD of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ethiopian Food, Medicine and Health Care Administration and Control Authority, the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI) and the Ethiopian Conformity Assessment Enterprise (ECAE).

Occupational health risk assessment methods (notably for operators and workers) and international criteria were explained. The required data including their quality were discussed. The most relevant European models to estimate operator, worker and bystander exposure were presented and the workshop participants got hands-on experience with some of these models. The interactive workshop was animated by an international consultant of the Dutch Board for the Authorization of Pesticides (Ctgb) in close collaboration with APHRD and Alterra. An outline for an evaluation manual for future use by APHRD has been written. Issues to solve in the near future are the exact registration criteria applicable in Ethiopian registration and the classification and labelling for human health risk assessment.