ABCNEWS.com : EPA's Review of Pesticides Faulted
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ABCNEWS.com : EPA's Review of Pesticides Faulted
Date:
Fri, 26 Jul 2002 08:58:18 -400
From:
Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide
Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
July 24, 2002
ABCNEWS.com : EPA's Review of Pesticides Faulted
Science Advisory Panel Faults EPA's Review of Dangerous Pesticides The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) A report by a panel of scientific advisers calls into question whether the Environmental Protection Agency's review of a group of pesticides will be adequate to protect children's health. The independent panel suggested the EPA prematurely concluded 28 pesticides were safe without an adequate review of whether they are particularly harmful when combined.
The five-member panel, whose conclusions were made public this week, found that the EPA used an inadequate margin of safety for fetuses, infants and children when it reached its preliminary decision to approve the use of all but two of 30 organophosphorus pesticides.
EPA used a threefold factor, rather than the tenfold default safety factor generally required by the Food Quality Protection Act. The agency set people's maximum exposure to the chemicals at 1 percent of what is considered safe for animals, then added the additional threefold default safety factor for children.
"These panel members concluded that the confidence with the available data was not sufficient to assure adequate protection with less than the 10-fold FQPA safety factor," says the panel's report, which was based on a two-day meeting in Arlington, Va., in late June.
The EPA is required to provide data on the effects of each chemical on the developing nervous system of animals. All of the data from the review was based on tests by industry but the agency only had data on six of the 30 pesticides, the panel found.
The EPA, prompted by a settlement agreement from a lawsuit brought by Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, has been reviewing the cumulative risks of organophosphorus pesticides.
"This was so sloppy even the scientific advisory panel couldn't stomach it," Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist with NRDC, said Wednesday. "These scientists have basically chucked this back at the EPA and said, 'Not good enough. Do it again.' This is not an adequate margin of safety and this will not protect children." EPA spokesman Dave Deegan said Wednesday that the cumulative risk assessment is unfinished and more pesticide studies are expected within three to six weeks.
"We're going to look very carefully at the panel's recommendations and new data," Deegan said. "One of the key factors is we're actually expecting quite a few significant studies that directly relate to this issue to be submitted in the very near future."
"Our goal has been and continues to be that infants and children are fully protected," Deegan said, "and we need to make sure that our entire regulatory process is based on the best science available."
EPA Assistant Administrator Stephen L. Johnson signed off in June on the safety of all but two of 30 organophosphorus pesticides the agency studied to see whether they are unreasonably dangerous to human health when combined.
Johnson, who oversees the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, has said the agency might seek to ban two of the 30 pesticides dichlorvos, or DDVP, which is used in pest strips in homes, and dimethoate, which is sprayed on dozens of fruits and vegetables because they can cause headaches, nausea, weakness and even death.
The review stems from a settlement in a 1999 case brought by NRDC, environmentalists and farm workers, who challenged a missed deadline for reviewing the most dangerous pesticides, including those used in foods most eaten by children.
On the Net: Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/cumulative
Natural Resources Defense Council: http://www.nrdc.org/health/pesticides/default.asp
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20020724_1986.html
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