EPA Pesticide Program Update
Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 10:03 am
Updates
www.epa.gov/pesticides
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from EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs - 11/09/2011
IN THIS UPDATE:
1) Pyrethrins/Pyrethroid Cumulative Risk Assessment Confirms Safety of Current Uses; Supports Consideration of New Uses
2) Expanding Opportunities for Minor Crops: Crop Grouping Revisions Proposed Rule III
3) New Occupational Pesticide Exposure Data
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1) Pyrethrins/Pyrethroid Cumulative Risk Assessment Confirms Safety of Current Uses; Supports Consideration of New Uses
EPA’s recently completed cumulative risk assessment indicates that exposures from the many current uses of pyrethrins and pyrethoid insecticides do not pose risk concerns for children or adults. Further, the cumulative assessment supports consideration of registering additional new uses of these pesticides. EPA therefore is issuing this final pyrethins/pyrethroid cumulative risk assessment and requesting comment, including information that may be used to further refine the assessment. Once the agency completes and approves pyrethroid single chemical assessments, it is likely that new uses of these pesticides will be added, providing tools that may alleviate challenging new pest management situations such as the invasive stink bug and bed bugs.
The use of pyrethrins and the pyrethroids has increased during the past decade with the declining use of organophosphate pesticides, which are more acutely toxic to people and wildlife than the pyrethroids. In 2009, EPA identified the pyrethroid chemicals as having a common mechanism of toxicity and has now completed a human health cumulative risk assessment for all uses of the pyrethrins and pyrethroids.
EPA’s screening level cumulative assessment considers all registered uses of pyrethrins and pyrethroids and includes exposure from food, drinking water and residential settings through oral, dermal and inhalation routes of exposure. The agency considers this cumulative risk assessment to be highly conservative because it assumes that people are going to be exposed to the highest levels of residues in food, water, and in their homes all on the same day. For example, in estimating residential exposure the assessment assumed no dissipation of the chemicals, all individuals were exposed on the day of application, and exposure for each scenario occurred as a result of the pyrethroid with the highest risk estimate registered for that scenario. The assessment also assumed co-occurrence of certain residential scenarios as worst-case situations. Even using these very conservative assumptions that likely overestimate exposure to pyrethrins and pyrethroids, estimated risks to both adults and children are well below the agency’s level of concern.
Interested parties are invited to submit comments and input on the Pyrethrins/Pyrethroid Cumulative Risk Assessment by January 9, 2012, to docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0746 at Regulations.gov. The assessment and supporting documents are available in this docket. See also the agency’s Assessing Pesticide Cumulative Risk website.
For additional information:
Assessing Pesticide Cumulative Risk/ Common Mechanism Groups; Cumulative Exposure and Risk Assessment visit http://epa.gov/pesticides/cumulative/co ... groups.htm
***********************************************
2) Expanding Opportunities for Minor Crops: Crop Grouping Revisions Proposed Rule III
EPA is proposing to revise the pesticide crop grouping regulations that allow the establishment of tolerances for groups of related crops. The proposed revisions, published in a November 9, 2011, Federal Register Notice, expand the existing stone fruit and tree nut crop groups by establishing new crop subgroups and/or adding new commodities and naming the expanded crop groups in a way that distinguishes them from the existing groups. EPA expects these proposed revisions to promote the greater use of crop groupings for tolerance-setting purposes and, in particular, to assist in making available lower-risk pesticides for minor crops, both domestically and in countries that export food to the United States. This is the third in a series of planned crop group updates we expect to propose over the next several years.
This proposed crop group rule is based upon two petitions developed by the International Crop Grouping Consulting Committee workgroup and submitted to EPA by a nationwide cooperative project, the Interregional Research Project Number 4 (IR-4). We have included these petitions and the monographs supporting them in the docket for the proposed rule, which is available in docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2006-0766 at www.regulations.gov . EPA believes that this proposal is a burden-reducing regulation.
Comments on the proposed rule are due on or before January 9, 2012.
***********************************************
3) New Occupational Pesticide Exposure Data
In an effort to increase transparency, EPA has recently developed new web pages that contain technical information and the most current guidance for assessing pesticide exposure for workers who work with pesticides or where they have recently been applied. This information is intended for anyone conducting occupational pesticide exposure assessments. Updated information includes the “Occupational Pesticide Handler Unit Exposure Surrogate Reference Table,” September 2011, and the “Science Advisory Council for Exposure (ExpoSAC) Policy 3,” June 2011.
The agency uses the term “handler” to describe individuals who are involved in, and may be exposed to pesticides during the pesticide application process in agricultural and non-agricultural settings.
Handlers can include mixers, loaders, applicators and flaggers. The agency uses “unit exposures” as the basis for assessing handler exposure to pesticides. The updated “Occupational Pesticide Handler Unit Exposure Surrogate Reference Table” contains the current recommended unit exposures for standard agency occupational pesticide handler exposure scenarios.
Post-application exposure may occur while workers perform job-related activities in areas that have been treated with pesticides. These activities include:
• hand-harvesting fruits and vegetables,
• thinning orchard crops,
• scouting fields for pests,
• working in greenhouses and
• maintaining golf courses.
The agency uses “transfer coefficients” as an exposure metric to estimate exposure for individuals conducting post-application activities. The updated “Science Advisory Council for Exposure Policy 3,” describes the Agency’s use of Agricultural Re-entry Task Force data to assess occupational post-application pesticide exposure.
The information on occupational pesticide handlers can be found at http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/science/h ... -data.html, while the information on occupational pesticide post-application exposure data can be found at http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/science/p ... -data.html.
www.epa.gov/pesticides
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
from EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs - 11/09/2011
IN THIS UPDATE:
1) Pyrethrins/Pyrethroid Cumulative Risk Assessment Confirms Safety of Current Uses; Supports Consideration of New Uses
2) Expanding Opportunities for Minor Crops: Crop Grouping Revisions Proposed Rule III
3) New Occupational Pesticide Exposure Data
***********************************************
1) Pyrethrins/Pyrethroid Cumulative Risk Assessment Confirms Safety of Current Uses; Supports Consideration of New Uses
EPA’s recently completed cumulative risk assessment indicates that exposures from the many current uses of pyrethrins and pyrethoid insecticides do not pose risk concerns for children or adults. Further, the cumulative assessment supports consideration of registering additional new uses of these pesticides. EPA therefore is issuing this final pyrethins/pyrethroid cumulative risk assessment and requesting comment, including information that may be used to further refine the assessment. Once the agency completes and approves pyrethroid single chemical assessments, it is likely that new uses of these pesticides will be added, providing tools that may alleviate challenging new pest management situations such as the invasive stink bug and bed bugs.
The use of pyrethrins and the pyrethroids has increased during the past decade with the declining use of organophosphate pesticides, which are more acutely toxic to people and wildlife than the pyrethroids. In 2009, EPA identified the pyrethroid chemicals as having a common mechanism of toxicity and has now completed a human health cumulative risk assessment for all uses of the pyrethrins and pyrethroids.
EPA’s screening level cumulative assessment considers all registered uses of pyrethrins and pyrethroids and includes exposure from food, drinking water and residential settings through oral, dermal and inhalation routes of exposure. The agency considers this cumulative risk assessment to be highly conservative because it assumes that people are going to be exposed to the highest levels of residues in food, water, and in their homes all on the same day. For example, in estimating residential exposure the assessment assumed no dissipation of the chemicals, all individuals were exposed on the day of application, and exposure for each scenario occurred as a result of the pyrethroid with the highest risk estimate registered for that scenario. The assessment also assumed co-occurrence of certain residential scenarios as worst-case situations. Even using these very conservative assumptions that likely overestimate exposure to pyrethrins and pyrethroids, estimated risks to both adults and children are well below the agency’s level of concern.
Interested parties are invited to submit comments and input on the Pyrethrins/Pyrethroid Cumulative Risk Assessment by January 9, 2012, to docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0746 at Regulations.gov. The assessment and supporting documents are available in this docket. See also the agency’s Assessing Pesticide Cumulative Risk website.
For additional information:
Assessing Pesticide Cumulative Risk/ Common Mechanism Groups; Cumulative Exposure and Risk Assessment visit http://epa.gov/pesticides/cumulative/co ... groups.htm
***********************************************
2) Expanding Opportunities for Minor Crops: Crop Grouping Revisions Proposed Rule III
EPA is proposing to revise the pesticide crop grouping regulations that allow the establishment of tolerances for groups of related crops. The proposed revisions, published in a November 9, 2011, Federal Register Notice, expand the existing stone fruit and tree nut crop groups by establishing new crop subgroups and/or adding new commodities and naming the expanded crop groups in a way that distinguishes them from the existing groups. EPA expects these proposed revisions to promote the greater use of crop groupings for tolerance-setting purposes and, in particular, to assist in making available lower-risk pesticides for minor crops, both domestically and in countries that export food to the United States. This is the third in a series of planned crop group updates we expect to propose over the next several years.
This proposed crop group rule is based upon two petitions developed by the International Crop Grouping Consulting Committee workgroup and submitted to EPA by a nationwide cooperative project, the Interregional Research Project Number 4 (IR-4). We have included these petitions and the monographs supporting them in the docket for the proposed rule, which is available in docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2006-0766 at www.regulations.gov . EPA believes that this proposal is a burden-reducing regulation.
Comments on the proposed rule are due on or before January 9, 2012.
***********************************************
3) New Occupational Pesticide Exposure Data
In an effort to increase transparency, EPA has recently developed new web pages that contain technical information and the most current guidance for assessing pesticide exposure for workers who work with pesticides or where they have recently been applied. This information is intended for anyone conducting occupational pesticide exposure assessments. Updated information includes the “Occupational Pesticide Handler Unit Exposure Surrogate Reference Table,” September 2011, and the “Science Advisory Council for Exposure (ExpoSAC) Policy 3,” June 2011.
The agency uses the term “handler” to describe individuals who are involved in, and may be exposed to pesticides during the pesticide application process in agricultural and non-agricultural settings.
Handlers can include mixers, loaders, applicators and flaggers. The agency uses “unit exposures” as the basis for assessing handler exposure to pesticides. The updated “Occupational Pesticide Handler Unit Exposure Surrogate Reference Table” contains the current recommended unit exposures for standard agency occupational pesticide handler exposure scenarios.
Post-application exposure may occur while workers perform job-related activities in areas that have been treated with pesticides. These activities include:
• hand-harvesting fruits and vegetables,
• thinning orchard crops,
• scouting fields for pests,
• working in greenhouses and
• maintaining golf courses.
The agency uses “transfer coefficients” as an exposure metric to estimate exposure for individuals conducting post-application activities. The updated “Science Advisory Council for Exposure Policy 3,” describes the Agency’s use of Agricultural Re-entry Task Force data to assess occupational post-application pesticide exposure.
The information on occupational pesticide handlers can be found at http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/science/h ... -data.html, while the information on occupational pesticide post-application exposure data can be found at http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/science/p ... -data.html.