Comment on the distinction between hazard and safety in evaluation of human health hazards on use of dichlorvos, especially in resin strips

Abstract

Gillett et al. (1972) conclude that the information available on dichlorvos resin strips does not reveal any substantial hazardous effect on human beings. The resin strip formulation offers several distinct advantages regarding acute safety hazard, and dichlorvos is rapidly degraded within the environment and within or on the surface of the body. However, the nature of the DDVP resin strip potentially provides for continuous exposure ², either through continuous occupation of a treated dwelling (e. g., a housewife at home) or through exposure in several treated areas (home, business, shop) throughout a community in which these strips are used. As distinct from the more common discontiuous methods of exposure, a method of treatment involving continuous exposure seems to require an especially detailed examination of the safety of the method. The process of evaluation of a chemical and its application method for safety also of necessity involves an examination of the criteria or standards used to evaluate safety and the adequacy of the system of judgment used in certifying safety. Some questions are specifically involved in the evaluation of DDVP-containing insecticide strips; others relate more generally to toxicology, evaluation of chemicals, and the considerations of how our society — the overlapping industrial, academic, governmental, and consumer communities — copes or fails to cope with these matters. A concensual definition of safety was not reached by the authors, and the spectrum of opinion concerning this definition probably represents the diversity in society at large. Thus, the larger questions of risk/assurance and cost/benefit of the use of dichlorvos resin strips are very much related to the attitudes and values of evaluators.