ENVIRONMENTAL
NEWS
New pesticide law drops "zero-tolerance" standard, focuses on exposures to children
W
ith surprising speed, Congress approved and President Clinton signed a law changing the way the United States regulates pesticides. The Food Quality Protection Act, signed Aug. 3 by Clinton, orders EPA to consider the cumulative risk to children from pesticide exposure rather than focus solely on risks to adults. It also requires the agency to develop a screening program for estrogenic substances and incorporates EPA's recently released risk assessment revisions that consider a variety of noncancer endpoints The most significant change for pesticide regulation is the deletion of the Delaney Clause, a 1958 amendment to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act that set a zero-tolerance level for pesticide residues in processed food. The law replaces Delaney with a new standard of "reasonable certainty that no harm will result from aggregate exposures to the pesticide chemical residue" for processed food and raw agricultural products. Although the standard appears to have been laxed it will require EPA to collect and consider a much broader range of health effects information when setting a npstiride tole r a n r p or m a x i m u m limit
The law recognizes for the first time that infants and children have special sensitivities to pesticide exposure. It incorporates several of the recommendations of the 1993 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report, "Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children," said Philip Landrigan, chief of community medicine and pediatrics at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, New York and chair of the NAS study committee. The NAS report explicitly noted that be-
Aggregate exposure levels to pesticide residues from all foods, including raw fruits and vegetables, now will be considered when the government sets pesticide threshold levels.
cause of their small body size and diet heavy in fruits and vegetables, infants and children are exposed to a much higher level of pesticides than adults. The law requires EPA to determine that a threshold is safe for children and infants; if it is not, then the allowable levels of exposure will be set to provide a margin of safety that is up to 10 times more protective, EPA officials said. Since 1994, EPA has required pesticide manufacturers seeking registration for a new pesticide ingredient and those seeking reregistration to run a battery of toxicological, reproductive, and developmental tests. These data will be used to set tolerances and will provide information for implementation of the act's requirement that EPA consider health effects such as nerve damage reproductive health effects and birth defects. EPA must also sider the dietary patterns of conand available information fin t h e at?$?rei?ate e x p o s u r e levpta
to pesticide residues and to other related substances Within three
3 8 0 A • VOL. 30, NO. 9, 1996 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS
years of passage, manufacturers will be required to test all pesticide chemicals to determine whether they are endocrine disrupters. In a nod to environmentalists, the act includes a community right-to-know provision. Every two years EPA is required to distribute to large retail grocers a booklet that describes the risk and benefits of pesticides. "The legislation will require us to do a lot more, but I also think we have a very good base to work from," said Anne Lindsey, director of policy in EPA's pesticide program. The bill had broad bipartisan congressional support and the seal of approval from pesticide manufacturers, farmers, food processors, and many environmental groups. Dennis Stolte, senior director of government relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation, said farmers are satisfied with the law's streamlined regulatory process and special exemptions for pesticides used on minor or small-volume seasonal croDS Pesticide manufacturers are pleased with the requirement that the agency's risk assessment allows a DGsticide's bene fits to be considered when setting a tolerance
Environmental groups that pushed EPA to do a better job of implementing the Delaney Clause praised the act. Kert Davies of the Environmental Working Group said the law created "an entirely new paradigm" for EPA. "The thing that is so radically different is that they are forced to look at multiple effects," Davies said. Jay Feldman, executive director of the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, criticized the act as a negative "sea change" in how the country views cancer. Rather than give EPA clearer instructions on data collection, Congress should set its sights on identifying chemicals that cause cancer and finding ways to eliminate them, Feldman said. —CATHERINE M. COONEY
0013-936X/96/0930-380AS12.00/0 © 1996 American Chemical Society
