Dear Colleagues,

Half of the eight billion people in the world live and work in rural areas. They are mainly engaged in agriculture, which is considered by the WHO as one of the three most dangerous human activities, together with healthcare and the building sectors. Rural populations all over the world face several hazards in their daily lives and working activities. Among them, particular attention must be addressed at pesticides: these compounds must necessarily be toxic because they are used for controlling undesired living species, and, differing from other chemicals, must be spread in the environment in order to reach their targets. Since their toxicity is not specific for the target organisms, their use can endanger different living species, including humans. In this light, risk assessment of pesticide use is fundamental, but new challenges are appearing in this field: the pesticide market is quickly changing and new compounds are being introduced into the market, so a sound risk assessment for these compounds must be organized. Developed and industrialized countries have very structured systems for pesticide authorization, but similar systems are not affordable for developing and in-transition countries, which must rely on their own capacities or assessments performed out of their borders. Moreover, due to economic problems, obsolete pesticides are still marketed in these countries, bringing about specific risks. Due to several reasons, risk assessment in this field is quite complicated because it is expensive and technically difficult due to the great variability of the application scenarios, and, in any case, biological and environmental monitoring are performed after exposure occurs and not before. On the other hand, the big improvement of ITs makes new tools for risk assessment now available, mainly as models. Models represent potentially cost-effective and user-friendly tools that are adequate to perform risk assessment, but, at present, they are mainly addressed at the premarketing phase, with models that are usable during daily activities being absent but needed.

All these topics will be addressed in this Special Issue, which will accept research papers, commentaries, and reviews.

Prof. Dr. Claudio Colosio
Dr. Federico Maria Rubino
Guest Editors

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• agriculture
• occupational risks
• pesticides
• risk assessment
• models