Infants dietary pesticide exposure

TEFs were also used by the NRC Committee on Pesticides in the Diet of Infants and Children to estimate the aggregate risk to children from dietary exposure to a mixture of pesticides (NRC 1993). 

The new safety standard, provided in section 408(b) (2) (A) (ii) of the FQPA, is a reasonable certainty of no harm standard for aggregate exposure using dietary residues and all other reliable exposure information. When setting new or reassessing existing tolerances or tolerance exemptions under the new standard, EPA must now focus explicitly on exposures and risks to children and infants. EPA must explicitly determine that the tolerance, or exemption from tolerance, is safe for children consider the need for an additional safety factor of up to tenfold to account for uncertainty in the data base relative to children unless there is evidence that a different factor should be used and consider children s special sensitivities and often unique exposure patterns to pesticides. 

U.S. tolerances is the responsibility of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In the absence of a specific tolerance, residues must be below detectable levels. Based on modifications to FFDCA mandated by the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) of 1996, several new elements were introduced to the EPA tolerance process. These include the need to consider the special sensitivity of infants and children, the potential exposure via multiple routes of exposure (i.e., aggregate exposure from dietary and non-dietary sources), and the potential for exposure to other pesticides and chemicals with a common mechanism of toxicity (i.e., cumulative exposure). Under FQPA, the EPA was also required to complete a reevaluation of all existing tolerances during a 10-year period. Domestically established M RLs apply also to imported commodities, but there is an established (if somewhat slow) process for evaluation of residue data from other countries in support of import tolerances. 

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