Date: 3/30/99

Time: 2:00

Type: Symposium

Number: 167

The Food Quality Protection Act: Overview and update

*C. DiFonzo, Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824
Contact e-mail: difonzo@pilot.msu

The Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) was passed unanimously by Congress and signed into law in August 1996. The Act amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which covers tolerances for pesticides in food and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, which sets guidelines for pesticide registration, classification, use, and applicator certification. FQPA fundamentally changes the way EPA sets tolerances for pesticide residues in food. Before FQPA, there was a single dietary-based tolerance for each pesticide/ crop combination. Under FQPA, EPA must now consider common mechanism of toxicity, aggregate exposure, and children when setting tolerances. This could dramatically reduce legal limits for residues on food, and thus significantly impact pesticide registrations and uses, particularly on specialty crops (both food and non-food). EPA is currently reviewing tolerances of organophosphates under the new guidelines, and making policy decisions on how to handle mechanism of toxicity, dietary plus non-dietary exposure, and safety factors for kids when conducting pesticide risk assessments. FQPA also mandates that EPA test pesticides for endocrine disruption, i.e. the ability to affect hormones or hormonal tissues. A screening and testing plan will be ready sometime in 1999. Finally, under FQPA EPA was required to publish a consumer brochure discussing pesticide risks and benefits. After many drafts, the brochure was finally released in February 1999.

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