Guidelines Needed for EPA's Tolerance Assessments of Pesticide Residues in Food

Gao ID: T-RCED-89-35 May 17, 1989

GAO discussed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) methods for assessing potential risks of pesticide residues in food. GAO found that: (1) EPA used its Tolerance Assessment System to estimate dietary exposure to pesticide residues, but it did not establish a policy to assess tolerance levels on population subgroups with the highest potential exposure to pesticides; (2) EPA developed separate cancer risk estimates for the overall U.S. population, even though population subgroup exposure was higher in some cases; and (3) although EPA used residue data in assessments over a 2-year period, there were no guidelines for performing anticipated residue studies. GAO believes that: (1) consideration of all available information on cancer risks would increase the credibility of EPA regulatory decisions on carcinogenic pesticides; and (2) EPA should reevaluate the adequacy of anticipated residue data.

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.

Director: Peter F. Guerrero Team: General Accounting Office: Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division Phone: (202) 512-4907


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