EPA WANTS TO EXTEND FQPA RISK ASSESSMENT STANDARDS TO NON-FOOD PESTICIDES
News Date December 15, 2009
In what it deems an effort to protect farm workers and children, the Environmental Protection Agency last week announced that it intends to apply Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) risk assessment techniques to all pesticides.
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), which regulates pesticide registration, utilizes a risk-benefit standard for approving pesticide products. FQPA, however, mandates a risk-only standard and includes an additional safety factor and aggregates all non-occupational pesticide exposure.
"The state of the science since FQPA [was adopted] has advanced to the point that it is now possible to consider aggregate risks from the same pesticide used in agricultural, commercial and/or residential settings, cumulative risks from exposure to pesticides with common mechanisms of toxicity, and the unique risks posed to infants and children due to their potentially increased sensitivity to pesticides," the agency said in its policy paper on the announcement. (Contact: Nathan Bowen)