FW: 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 Wo

[Guest guest]

EPA sent out this notice soliciting interested individuals to serve on a panel

to discuss FW exposure to Pesticides.

Ruiz

Assistant Director, Systems Development and Policy Administration

Migrant Health Coordinator

National Association of Community Health Centers, Inc.

7200 Wisconsin Avenue Suite 210

Bethesda, MD 20814

(301) 347-0442

(301) 347-0459 FAX

(202) 365-0154 Cell Phone

jruiz@...

www.nachc.com

" Youth is the gift of nature but age is a work of art. "

- Garson Kanin

NOTICE: As a result of Hurricane Katrina, over 100 health center sites in LA,

MS and AL have been totally destroyed, are closed due to damage, or damaged but

still operating. The total estimated damage is $65 million. To date, $1.7

million has been contributed to the Hurricane Relief Fund for Health Centers.

It's not too late to make a donation. Please visit us at www.nachc.com for more

info or to make a contribution. Thank you!

-----Original Message-----

From: Bravo.@...

[mailto:Bravo.@...]

Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 2:31 PM

Ruiz

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

This is to commend your continued interest in the health of America's

farm workers, and to invite you to share with other farm worker

advocates the opportunity to become involved in a very meaningful part

of the decision-making process for pesticides. The FIFRA SAP is an

advisory body to EPA, and an avenue for highlighting issues that may be

of particular relevance to farm workers and their families which should

be taken into account in the risk assessment, and subsequently, risk

management processes.

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/200\

5/05-24139.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.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Best regards and happy new year.

Bravo

Office of Water

US Environmental Protection Agency

202-566-1976