Archive for October, 2014
EPA’s New Website on Pesticide Drift
Oct 22nd
EPA has a published a new website on pesticide drift. This site includes an “Introduction to Pesticide Drift”; explains “what EPA is doing to reduce drift”; and explains how to “report pesticide drift problems.”
EPA states on this site that
“Pesticide spray drift is the movement of pesticide dust or droplets through the air at the time of application or soon after, to any site other than the area intended. Pesticide droplets are produced by spray nozzles used in application equipment for spraying pesticides on crops, forests, turf and home gardens. Some other pesticides are formulated as very fine dry particles (commonly referred to as dust formulations).”
EPA Publishes Guidance on Interspecies and Intraspecies Extrapolation
Oct 15th
EPA has published its guidance on using Quantitative Data to Develop Data-Derived Extrapolation Factors for Interspecies and Intraspecies Extrapolation. This document lays out methods for calculation of factors compensating for the application of animal toxicity data to humans (interspecies) and for compensating for sensitive populations (intraspecies). The use of data to conduct these extrapolations rather than rely on default values advances EPA’s policy of considering relevant data first when conducting its chemical assessments.
EPA’s guidance is available here.
EPA Publishes Article on Understanding Pesticide Science
Oct 15th
EPA has posted on its pesticide website an article entitled Understanding the Science behind EPA’s Pesticide Decisions. According to EPA’s article,
“Science is the backbone of the EPA’s decision-making. The Agency’s ability to pursue its mission to protect human health and the environment depends upon the integrity and quality of the science on which it relies. The environmental policies, decisions, guidance, and regulations that impact the lives of all Americans must be grounded, at a most fundamental level, in sound, high quality science.