Virginia Cooperative Extension Virginia Tech Pesticide Programs Department of Entomology Blacksburg,

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Virginia Cooperative ExtensionVirginia Tech
Pesticide ProgramsDepartment of
EntomologyBlacksburg, VirginiaNov. 1998
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Food Quality Protection Act

• Passed in August, 1996
• Protects the public from pesticide residues in
  dietary and non-dietary sources
• Passed after great national debate over
  effectiveness of existing laws to protect us from
  pesticide residues in our diet

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Food Quality Protection Act

• Single health-based standard for residue
  tolerances in both raw and processed foods
• Determine that residues are safe for children
• Consider - aggregate exposure to residues in
  food, drinking water, residential use
• Consider - cumulative exposure to all other
  pesticides with a common mechanism of toxicity
• Review all existing tolerances within 10 years

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Tolerances

• Pre-FQPA
• based on characteristics of each individual
  pesticide
• Now
• based on cumulative effectsof all pesticides
• Example
• Organophosphate insecticides (diazinon,
  malathion, chloropyrifos, etc.) have common
  mechanism of toxicity - effects must now all be
  weighed together

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What does this all mean?

• EPA uses risk cup to describe how tolerances
  are now set
• Full cup represents
• Amount pesticide a person could receive every
  day for 70 years without significant health risk
• Determined through animal studies
• Amount reduced by 100-1000 fold to determine
  daily/lifetime safe exposure for humans

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What does FQPA do to the Risk Cup?

• Before EPA considered onlyexposure to
  pesticides in food - cup contained only dietary
  exposure
• Now EPA considers exposure from all possible
  sources - cup contains both dietary and
  non-dietary exposure
• Result Cup fills more quickly less room for
  new and existing uses.

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What does FQPA do to the Risk Cup?

• Before EPA considered eachpesticide - one risk
  cup for each pesticide.
• Now EPA considers compounds with common
  mechanism of toxicity - each cup contains a
  group of pesticides that work the same way.
• Result Cup fills quickly less room for
  pesticides and their uses.

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What does FQPA do to the Risk Cup?

• Before EPA added safety factors to account for
  animal testing and human variability - 100 to
  1,000-fold safety factor.
• Now Must consider infants and children - an
  additional 10-fold safety factor may be added -
  1,000 to 10,000-fold safety margin.
• Result Cup gets smaller less room for
  pesticides and their uses.

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What happens when the cup is full or a
manufacturer wants to add a new use?

• Make label or formulation changes so pesticide is
  safer. - Pesticide and uses require less room in
  cup.
• Drop pesticides and/or uses from the cup. This
  would make more room for remaining uses or new
  uses.

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Tolerance Reassessment

• All tolerances must be reviewed by 2006
• Organophosphates, carbamates, some fungicides
  and herbicides must be reviewed by August 1999

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Tolerance Reassessment by 1999

• Insecticides
• organophosphates and carbamates
• Fungicides
• benomyl, captan, chlorothalonil, iprodione
  (Rovral), mancozeb, maneb, thiophanate-methyl
  (Topsin M), vinclozolin (Ronilan)
• Herbicides
• alachlor (Lasso), bensulide (Betasan),
  phenmedipham, pronamide (Kerb)

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Impact on Agriculture

• Minor crops at risk for label restrictions and
  loss of uses
• fruits and vegetables
• Be aware that pest controloptions may change in
  next few years

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What Should Growers Do?

• Determine pesticides needed to grow crops
• Communicate needs with
• Cooperative Extension
• Commodity Groups
• USDA and EPA
• Respond to requests for data
• Land-Grant University
• USDA/National Ag. Statistics Service
• commodity groups

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What is being done?

• Pest management assessment
• Collecting and sharing data
• Developing crop/pest management profiles (fact
  sheets) to be shared with FQPA decision-makers
• Communication
• Informing growers through Cooperative Extension
• Coordinating efforts with Ag. commodity groups
• Working with USDA/EPA to identify alternative
  controls / maintain existing uses