Twenty thousand to 25,000 t of expired or prohibited pesticides are stored on 4,000 Ukrainian depots. This is a serious threat
for people and environment. Arsenic compounds are highly toxic for cattle. Death comes within several hours. Even if an animal
managed to survive 7–10 days, it still may die because of kidney failure. There is no effective antidote. Organochlorine insecticides
including DDT, lindane, toxaphene and heptachlor may be found in water food chain and achieve critical levels in fish-eating
birds. Moreover, they are collected in cattle’s fat. Poisoning by organochlorine insecticides affects nervous system and causes
tremors, seizures and unusual behavior. After longlasting seizures or high temperature animal dies because of respiratory
failure.
Organophosphates and Carbamates insecticides are used for grain and seed treatment, cattle and pets. Young or exhausted animals
are prone to be affected. Organophosphates are very different from each other by levels of toxicity. They enter organism through
skin, lungs, eyes and digestive tract, and irritate nerves. Organophosphates, which contain chlorine atoms, usually leave
fat slowly and cause long-lasting poisoning symptoms with pets and adult bulls. Carbamates act like organophosphates, but
recovery period is usually faster. Severity of symptoms depends on pesticides concentration. The main antidote for such type
of poisoning is atropine injection. It is difficult to cure ruminant animals because they keep a big volume of toxin in their
stomach. Recovery takes days or weeks.
Sodium chlorate causes hemoglobin oxidation which leads to red blood cells death and destruction of muscles. Urine becomes
brown. Cattle usually have diarrhea due to bowels irritation. There is no specific antidote. Forage treated with paraquat
may irritate horse’s mouth. If cats and dogs are exposed to that they may become fatally poisoned by licking their own feet.
Majority of pesticide depots were not designed for long-term usage. Chemicals are stolen and illegally sold to people. Depots’
roofs collapsed over the time, pesticides’ wrapping gets of order, pesticides of different nature may become catalyst of spontaneous
chemical reactions with unpredictable results. Spontaneous fire may spread toxins on a wide area. Utilization of expired and
prohibited pesticides is Ukrainian national problem.
Keywords Obsolete pesticides - organochlorine pesticides - nitrate fertilizers - carbamates