Review of Bee Health

Purdue Extension Publication Discusses Role of Data Quality Act in Protecting Honey Bees

July 25, 2017

The distinguished authors of The Complex Life of the Honey Bee: Environmental, Biological, and Chemical Challenges to Colony Health discuss the crucial role of the Data Quality Act in ecological risk assessments. Below is an excerpt. The complete Purdue Extension publication is available here.

Analyzing the Data

The next phase of the risk assessment process includes an intensive review and summary of the available toxicity and environmental fate data. These data include registrant-submitted studies, studies published in scientic journals (open literature), environmental monitoring data, and ecological incident data. The law requires that any studies a registrant submits to the EPA must indicate whether the studies followed Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) standards. The standards are meant to ensure consistency, reliability, and transparency in the data. Failing to comply with GLP standards can result in cancellations, suspensions, or modications of a registration or research permit, penalties, or even criminal prosecution. Open literature studies must also meet the standard defined by the Data Quality Act. The EPA has published guidance for regulatory risk assessors on evaluating open literature studies for qualitative or quantitative use in ecological risk assessments that support regulatory decisions.

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This process takes considerable time and resources, is subject to multiple levels of review within the agency, and is intended to be transparent so that the EPA’s understanding of the data is clear, concise, and reasonable. [Emphasis added]