Risk management pesticides

EPA. 1999d. Methyl parathion risk management decision. Office of Pesticide Programs. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Http //www.epa.gov/pesticides/citizens/mpfactsheet.htm. May 20, 1999. 

When humans contact a chemical residue such as a pesticide on a treated surface, some of the deposit can be dislodged or transferred to skin or clothing. Ultimately, a portion of the amount transferred may be absorbed and constitute the absorbed daily dose (ADD). The ADD provides the most precise estimate of exposure that can be practically obtained for humans and has become the most useful expression of exposure for risk assessment and risk management. 

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report Intolerable Risk Pesticides in Our Children s Food focused on the increased risk of the adverse effects of pesticides on children. This was in part because of the smaller size of the child relative to the adult and because of different food consumption practices. Relative to their size, children eat, drink, and breathe more than adults in part because they are growing. The use and regulation of pesticides illustrate the complexities of risk analysis and risk management and the difficulties in determining an acceptable level of exposure with acceptable risks. In the United States approximately 1 billion pounds of pesticides (with about 600 different active ingredients) are used annually in the agricultural sector, and worldwide approximately 4 billion pounds are used. There are a range of human health and environmental health effects associated with the use of pesticides. 

The use of uncertainty analysis and probabilistic methods requires systematic and detailed formulation of the assessment problem. To facilitate this, a) risk assessors and risk managers should be given training in problem formulation, b) tools to assist appropriate problem formulation should be developed, and c) efforts should be made to develop generic problem formulations (including assessment scenarios, conceptual models, and standard datasets), which can be used as a starting point for assessments of particular pesticides. 

Under the TSCA, a new chemical is a chemical substance that is not already included on the TSCA Inventory, and is intended to be used for a commercial purpose (other than as a drug or pesticide) in the USA. Section 5 of the TSCA requires manufacturers or importers of a new chemical to notify the EPA (i.e., submit a premanufacture notification, PMN) before manufacturing or importing the chemical. The EPA has only 90 days (extendable to 180 days under certain circumstances) from the time of receipt of the notification to determine if an unreasonable risk may or will be presented by any aspect of the new industrial chemical, and make risk management decisions and take action to control any unreasonable risks posed by the chemical [17]. If after 90 days the submitter of a new chemical is not notified by the EPA of any regulatory restrictions or test requirements, they can legally market or import the chemical. 

Improvements in pesticide residue risk assessment practices should improve the scientific basis for managing pesticide residues in foods and the FQPA provides a blueprint for making such improvements. While most of the FQPA provisions are considered in theory to represent improvements in the risk assessment process, the practical adoption of methods to comply with such... 

Brock TCM, Arts GHP, Maltby L, van den Brink PJ. 2006. Aquatic risks of pesticides, ecological protection goals and common aims in EU legislation. Int Environ Assess Manag 2 e20-e46. 

Poisoning of pesticide users in developing countries and countries with economies in transition must be prevented. Initial input was requested on the extent of the problem of acutely toxic pesticides as well as guidance for sound risk management and reduction. 

A wide range of pesticides can potentially be found in drinking-water, usually at very low concentrations. Because chemical analysis can be difficult, common practice is to determine what substances are used in the catchment, and thus determine the monitoring and other risk management practices that are needed. However, the nature of pesticide use is such that concentrations in surface water may be very variable and intermittent Any monitoring will require careful planning if it is to generate useful data. Some pesticides are not very mobile in soil and, if found in water, they may be adsorbed to particulate matter. Many of the pesticides in current use are broken down rapidly in the environment. 

In some cases zero exposure is necessary in order to ban the production and/or use of a given chemical. This occurs most often with pesticides such as DDT, dieldrin, and 2,4,5-T, as well as with other type of substances such as PCBs. The risk management of toxic chemicals is performed in the United States, for example, by the federal government under a large number of acts, as exemplified in Table 9.10. 

ASSESSMENT OF RISKS TO HUMANS EXPOSED TO PESTICIDES 2 The Four Steps in Risk Assessment 2 Hazard Identification 2 Dose-Response Assessment 3 Margin of Safety Approach 3 Quantitative Risk Assessment 3 Exposure Assessment 4 Risk Characterization 4 RISK MANAGEMENT 5 ADVANCES IN DATA INTERPRETATION 5 Probabilistic Approaches 5 Recognition of the Tier Approach 5 Aggregate Exposure 6 Cumulative Exposure 6 Impact of New Scientific Advances 7 Post-Registration Monitoring 7 HARMONIZATION OF REGULATORY APPROACHES SUMMARY 9... 

Driver, J.H. and G.K. Whitmyre (1997). Pesticide regulation and human health the role of risk assessment, in Eundamentals of Risk Analysis and Risk Management, V. Molak (Ed.), CRC Lewis Publishers, New York, pp. 143-162. 

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