Biocides are non-agricultural chemical agents for the prevention of unhygienic pests. The worldwide demand for biocidal products has been rapidly increasing. Meanwhile, biocides have been causing negative health effects for decades, resulting in public health scares. Therefore, governments around the world have tried to strictly control biocides, and it is necessary to prioritize the health risks of biocides for efficient management. Chemical ranking and scoring (CRS) methods have been developed for the effective management of chemicals. However, existing methods do not use suitable variables to evaluate biocides, thus possibly underestimating or overestimating the actual health risks. We developed a new CRS method that reflects the exposure and toxicity characteristics of biocides. Eleven indicators were chosen as appropriate for prioritizing biocides, and scoring based on the globally harmonized system of classification and labeling of chemicals (GHS) improved the efficiency of the method. Correlations between individual indicators in this study were low (−0.151–0.325), indicating that each indicator was independent and well-chosen for prioritizing biocides. The effect of each indicator on the total score showed that carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, and reproductive toxicity (CMR) chemicals ranked high with r = 0.558. This result demonstrated that the most dangerous toxicants should play a more decisive role in the top ranking than the others. We expect that our method can be efficiently used to screen regulated biocides by prioritizing their health hazards, thus leading to better policy decision making about biocide use.

Concerns about the widespread use of pesticides have been growing due to the adverse effects of chemicals on the environment and human health. It has prompted worldwide research into the development of a replacement to chemical disinfection of soil. The efficiency of steam sterilization, an alternative to chemical methods, has improved as technology has advanced, and the Agricultural Research and Extension Service in Korea recommends the use of steam sterilization. However, few studies have been conducted on the effects and operating conditions of high-temperature steam disinfection. In this study, we present the optimum operating conditions of a high-steam disinfector, to maximize the cost-effectiveness and removal efficiency of total nematodes and total bacteria in soil using the Box−Behnken design. The experimental data were fitted to a second-order polynomial equation using multiple regression analysis, with coefficients of determination (R2) for each model of 0.9279, 0.9678, and 0.9979. The optimum conditions were found to be a steam temperature of 150.56 °C, running speed of 1.69 m/min, and spray depth of 15.0 cm, with a corresponding desirability value of 0.8367. In the model, these conditions cause the prediction of the following responses: nematode removal efficiency of 93.99%, bacteria removal efficiency of 97.49%, and oil consumption of 70.49 mL/m2. At the optimum conditions for the steam disinfector, the removal efficiencies of nematodes and bacteria were maximized, and the oil consumption was minimized. The results of our study can be used as basic data for efficient soil disinfection using high-temperature steam.