FQPA

What is FQPA?
The Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) was signed into law in the U.S. in August 1996. The law contains far reaching provisions, which revised food safety standards for pesticides regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In addition, FQPA required the U.S. EPA to begin immediately applying the new standard to all of the existing pesticide tolerances. Since 1996, EPA has been reviewing all existing and new pesticide tolerances under this new FQPA standard. In 1999, EPA chose to first review the organophosphates, the chemical class which includes chlorpyrifos.

FQPA impacts not only users in the United States, but worldwide, as regulators in other countries evaluate their own provisions in light of possibly stricter standards imposed by the U.S. EPA.

How the FQPA Process Works
For every class of product being evaluated, the U.S. EPA prepares a risk assessment. To do this, the agency must:

  • decide whether existing health-based standards for that pesticide are protective enough for special groups such as infants and children;
  • figure estimated exposures to the pesticide from food, water and residential exposures; and,
  • compare estimated exposures to how much the agency believes to be acceptable.
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Following this process, the U.S. EPA then shares their draft risk assessment and science chapters with the registrants. The registrants are offered an opportunity to correct any errors or inaccuracies. After reviewing the registrants’ comments, the EPA may revise their assessments further and then release their comments on the Internet for a 60-day public comment period. Comments during this time may be submitted by any interested third parties including growers, members of the general public, academics, activists and the registrants. The U.S. EPA will consider the comments and revise the assessments as they feel appropriate. The U.S. EPA then releases the final assessments, along with any regulatory decisions about the product.

The FQPA gives the U.S. EPA extensive power to decide what residue levels are acceptable for each type of food product. If residues cannot be kept within the U.S. EPA’s new guidelines, the chemical may be restricted or may no longer be available for that specific use.

Re-Registration Eligibility Decisions (REDs)
After the EPA completes the review the Agency usually issues a RED document that summarizes the risk assessment conclusions and outlines any risk reduction measures that are necessary for the pesticide to remain registered in the U.S.

Interim Re-registration Eligibility Decisions (IREDs)
The EPA will issue an IRED for a pesticide that is undergoing re-registration, requires a RED, and needs an assessment under FQPA. The IRED, issued after the EPA completes the individual pesticide's risk assessment, may include risk reduction measures to gain the benefits of these changes before the final RED can be issued.

TREDs (Reports on FQPA Tolerance Reassessment Progress and Interim Risk Management Decisions)
The EPA issues a TRED for a pesticide that requires tolerance reassessment decisions, but does not require a RED because:

  • the pesticide was registered after November 1, 1984, and by law is not included within the re-registration program;
  • EPA completed a RED for the pesticide before FQPA was enacted on August 3, 1996; or
  • the pesticide is not registered for use in the U.S. but tolerances are established that allow crops treated with the pesticide to be imported from other countries.
  • Some TREDs do not become final until the EPA considers the cumulative risks of all the pesticides in the cumulative group

Current list of pesticides being evaluated for re-registration

Current Re-Registration Status for Chlorpyrifos
In February 2003, the EPA declared that chlorpyrifos was eligible for re-registration with the issuance of the IRED document. The review of labels and supportive data submitted at the EPA's request is currently underway. The re-registration process will complete the final hurdle when the Organophosphate Cumulative Risk Assessment is issued from the EPA in the near future. The OP-CRA is the final step in the process, which accounts for the cumulative effects of the various products within this family of chemistry.