2.2 Risk and Hazard

Pesticides are often described as “hazardous” or “risky”, but these terms are sometimes used loosely. They have specific meanings:

RISK = (INTRINSIC) HAZARD x EXPOSURE

Exposure may have two elements: time and level of contact with the hazard. This is an important concept and has been (mis)used in the past to suggest that “there are no hazardous substances, just dangerous ways of using them”.

An analogy may be useful here. Motor vehicles are intrinsically hazardous, and we note that far greater numbers of people die in motor accidents every year than from all forms of pesticide poisoning. 

We only take a risk when we are exposed to vehicles (as drivers, passengers or other road users) - and most people are prepared to take on that risk. Some cars are less hazardous than others (e.g. those with many safety features and that do not go fast) and roads have speed limits (risk reduction). 

When a person is a long way from any motor vehicle (exposure = zero), the risk is zero. Since for most people economic life must continue, the concept of reducing the risk to levels that are As Low as Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) is more practical than eliminating the risk - which can be considered impossible in practice. Of course, the criteria set for ALARA can be both political and subjective.

Readers are also reminded that there are also risks to the cocoa crop itself. For example, an analysis of the crop in Ghana [1] revealed that key pests (such as black pod) collectively constitute the greatest risk to cocoa supply: either as existing sources of crop loss or the existential threat of invasive alien species. 

Other risks to cocoa production include ageing trees, price fluctuations and attractiveness of other crops and sources of income.