I. What are pesticides?

In order to carry out primary inventories of stockpiles of obsolete, banned and unusable pesticides and agrochemicals, it is important to know the nature of these chemical substances. According to the Technical Guidelines on Inventory, Identification, Collection and Storage of Obsolete and Banned Pesticides, developed by experts of the State Chemical Commission of RF Ministry of Agriculture, Central Institute of Agricultural Service and the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pesticides are almost never applied as active chemical agents. Active chemical agents are usually mixed with other components to form a preparation intended to maximise efficiency and safety of the application. Pesticides are commonly used as dusts, wetting powders, soluble powders, concentrates, emulsions, solutions in water or organic solvents, grained preparations, concentrated suspensions, etc.

II. Where should one conduct a primary inventory?

• Surveys of a territory for identification of illegal storages of obsolete, unusable and banned pesticides and agrochemicals should be conducted within the framework of public environmental control (Law on Environmental Protection, Article 68);

• The surveys should be conducted both in rural areas (storage facilities, makeshift storages, illegal dumps, heaps, pesticides in private households), and in urban areas (landfills and garbage collection facilities, inquiries at fairs, marketplaces, shops, questioning of local residents, etc.).

• The surveys should cover forested areas, ravines, river banks, fruit gardens, illegal dumps of household waste, abandoned storage facilities.

III. What points should one focus at in the course of a primary inventory?

• In the course of a primary inventory, priority attention should be paid to:

• areas nearby roads and protective forest belts,
• forest areas nearby human settlements,
• waterlogged areas, river valleys and nearby areas,
• rivers and streams,
• areas with high groundwater levels,
• springs,
• ravines, peripheral areas of human settlements and landfills,
• irrigation fields,
• old vegetable storages and cattle farm buildings, manure storages;
• farm machinery yards, airstrips and loading facilities of agriculture aviation.

 IV. Where is it prohibited to carry out a primary inventory?

It is prohibited to conduct primary inventories at specialised sites for burial of radioactive waste, cemeteries and facilities under special control regimes (sanitary control, veterinary control) animal burial sites.

V. What should be accounted for in the course of a primary inventory?

• In the course of an inventory, beside the target site under survey, it is necessary to account for quality of adjacent areas, water bodies and protected territories, pre-school and public health facilities, gardens located nearby a potential pollution source.

• A site survey should be conducted based on:

• available official data,
• questioning of local residents,
• questioning of persons, who deal with pesticides in the site area,
• search results.

• A site survey should be conducted in compliance with all rules, permits and guidelines in the sphere of management of hazardous waste and toxic materials, as well as in compliance with requirements of the due Russian legislation.