Permethrin is used against a number of pests, on nut, fruit, vegetable, cotton, ornamental, mushroom, potato and cereal crops. Breathing of the spray mist or vapors of permethrin by workers should be avoided. Permethrin caused mild irritation of intact or abraded skin of rabbits. The lethal concentration fifty, or LC50, is the concentration of a chemical in air or water that kills half the experimental animals exposed to the material for a set time period. When permethrin is administered orally to rats, it is rapidly metabolized and almost completely eliminated from the body in a few days.
Aquatic ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to the impact of permethrin.
As a group, synthetic pyrethroids were toxic to all estuarine species tested. Permethrin is extremely toxic to bees. The binding, or adsorption, of permethrin in soil may be limited to organic matter. Permethrin is readily broken down, or degraded, in most soils except organic types. Soil micro-organisms play a large role in the degradation of permethrin in the soil.