Scientific Advisory Panel to review Chemical Industry's Agricultural Reentry Task Force data

[Guest guest]

For Pesticide Safety Aficionados:

The announcement below explains that the EPA is convening a

Scientific Advisory Panel to review data generated by a pesticide

industry group called the Agricultural Re-entry Task Force. The

notice asks for nominations for persons to sit on the Scientific

Advisory Panel and sets forth the three issues to be considered by this panel.

The information generated by the ARTF has a big impact on EPA " s

assessment of risks to farmworkers. Some experts who have reviewed

this data believe that the methodology used was flawed. The data was

also generated solely by industry without input from farmworker

representatives.

Actions Requested:

1. Please consider nominating yourself (or identifying other experts

to nominate) for participation on the SAP.

2. Please consider preparing testimony to present to the SAP.

from the Farmworker Justice Fund will work with experts

to prepare testimony to be presented to this panel. If you have any

questions about this matter, please call me (202-783-2628) or send me

an email (sdavis@...). Thanks,

>Subject: Risk Assessment of Farm Worker Exposure to Pesticides - The EPA

>Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act Scientific Advisory

>Panel (FIFRA SAP) will meet on February 14 through 16 in Arlington,

>Virginia to " ... consider the Review of Worker Exposure Assessment

>Methods ... " - The FIFRA SAP is seeking the nomination of individuals to

>serve as ad hoc members of the Panel - In announcing the meeting, EPA

>notes that " ... " ...

>

>RISK ASSESSMENT, CROP PROTECTION, MIGRANT AND SEASONAL FARM WORKERS AND

>OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

>* Risk Assessment of Farm Worker Exposure to Pesticides - The EPA

>Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act Scientific Advisory

>Panel (FIFRA SAP) will meet on February 14 through 16 in Arlington,

>Virginia to " ... consider the Review of Worker Exposure Assessment

>Methods ... " - The FIFRA SAP is seeking the nomination of individuals to

>serve as ad hoc members of the Panel - In announcing the meeting, EPA

>notes that " ... The Agency issued its first occupational exposure

>testing guidelines in the early 1980s. These guidelines were intended to

>standardize the methodology used to conduct the studies necessary to

>allow the Agency to determine the potential exposures, and consequently

>risks, associated with the activities surrounding pesticide exposure.

>These activities included handling pesticides (i.e., mixing, loading and

>applying) as well as exposures resulting from working in fields

>following pesticide applications (e.g., harvesting, thinning, weeding).

>In the early 1990s, the Pesticide Handlers Exposure Data base was

>constructed in order to estimate exposures resulting from

>mixing/loading/applying pesticides. The studies assembled for use in

>this data base were taken from published literature as well as from

>industry-generated studies. This database has been used as the main

>source for estimating occupational exposures to workers handling

>pesticides for both registration and reregistration actions. In 1995, in

>order to develop a similar data base which could be used to address

>fieldworker exposures, the Agency issued a data call-in notice (DCI) for

>post-application farmworker exposure data. As a result of this DCI,

>every pesticide registrant who manufactured products that could lead to

>post-application farmworker exposures needed to generate data that could

>be used to quantify exposures to their products. In response to the

>issuance of the 1995 DCI, most major pesticide registrants consolidated

>their efforts and formed the Agricultural Reentry Task Force (ARTF). For

>more details, see http://www.exposuretf.com . The ARTF has generated the

>vast majority of the post-application farmworker exposure monitoring

>data since that time. It follows that the bulk of the data that have

>been generated by ARTF include exposure monitoring studies for a variety

>of hand-labor practices in a range of crops. The purpose of this meeting

>of the FIFRA Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) is to evaluate certain

>methodologies used to generate exposure studies and how the Agency uses

>these and other studies to conduct occupational exposure assessments

>... " - EPA notes that " ... Individuals nominated for this meeting

>should have expertise in one or more of the following areas:

>Occupational exposure assessment, occupational exposure monitoring,

>agricultural practices (especially hand labor practices), statistics,

>and risk assessment. Nominees should be scientists who have sufficient

>professional qualifications, including training and experience, to be

>capable of providing expert comments on the scientific issues for this

>meeting ... " - Information about the FIFRA SAP is posted at

>http://www.epa.gov/scipoly/sap - EPA OPPTS OPP Contact: Myrta R.

>Christian, Office of Science Coordination and Policy at 202 564 8498;

>fax: 202 564 8382; e-mail: Christian.Myrta@... - EPA December 16

>Federal Register :

>http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/20\

05/05-24139.htm

> - Three key issues have been identified by the Agency as the focus of

>this review. These include:

> * Hand Exposure Methods . Based upon review of the data, it

>appears that the hands are important contributors to overall exposure

>levels. In most monitoring studies used by the Agency, a wash technique,

>which is based on methods described in the scientific literature, is

>generally utilized to measure exposure to the hands. The goal of this

>evaluation is to identify issues associated with the use of this

>technique and to make recommendations with regard to how these data

>should be interpreted for exposure assessment purposes based on factors

>such as chemical properties and exposure duration.

> * Predictive Capability of Exposure Monitoring Techniques . Most

>exposure data that are currently available are based on the use of

>passive dosimetry techniques (e.g., whole-body dosimeters and handwash).

>These data quantify the residues that result on the surface of the skin

>after completing a job task of some sort. The purpose of this evaluation

>is to characterize the performance of passive dosimetry as a predictive

>tool for risk assessment purposes (e.g., through comparison with

>biological monitoring data and other possible analyses).

> * Clustering of Hand Labor Tasks for Exposure Assessment Purposes

>. The crops in the United States that require hand labor for successful

>production are extremely varied and range from field crops such as

>lettuce (e.g., harvest is a key labor requirement) to tree fruit such as

>apples (e.g., thinning and harvest are key labor requirements). Based on

>the currently available data and a need to address exposures related to

>hand labor across agriculture, the Agency has created clusters or groups

>which represent categories of exposures that are believed to be similar

>for assessment purposes. These categories allow the Agency to develop

>risk estimates for a wide range of crops and were defined based on

>agronomic and ergonomic similarities in crops and workers, respectively.

>The purpose of this evaluation is to characterize the methods used to

>define a representative cluster and analyze the monitoring data that

>pertains to that group which are then used for exposure assessment

>purposes. An example, based on vineyard and trellis crops will be used

>for illustrative purposes.

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