Pesticides

EPA's Formidable Task To Assess and Regulate Their Risks Gao ID: RCED-86-125 April 18, 1986

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) assessment and regulation process for the health and environmental effects of pesticides.

GAO noted that EPA: (1) has not received test and evaluation data on the adverse health and environmental effects of most registered pesticide products; (2) may conduct a special review to determine the risks and benefits of potentially hazardous pesticides to decide if regulatory action to cancel or restrict the pesticides is needed; and (3) is responsible for determining the maximum amount of pesticide residue that can be safely left in foods, the risks of the inert ingredients that propel, dilute, or stabilize the active ingredients, and the cancer-causing potential of pesticides. GAO found that EPA: (1) will continue its reassessment and reregistration efforts into the next century because of the magnitude and complexity of the tasks involved; (2) is implementing changes to speed up its special review process; (3) is experiencing difficulty in obtaining test data on the effects of some inert ingredients; and (4) has encountered legal inconsistencies with respect to the allowable uses of cancer-causing pesticides in variable situations.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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