For Release: July 30, 2015

EPA is requesting public comment on a draft guidance document, Pesticide Cumulative Risk Assessment: Framework for Screening Analysis. Building on EPA’s work on cumulative risk assessments, this document provides guidance on how EPA will screen available information to identify groups of pesticides that may have a common mechanism of toxicity. Once groups of chemicals with common mechanisms have been identified, EPA refers to the potential risk resulting from combined exposure to all chemicals of the class as cumulative risk.

By establishing guidance for conducting a screening level analysis of chemicals that have the potential cumulative risks, EPA will be able to more efficiently prioritize its cumulative risk assessments. Prior to development of this framework, cumulative assessments required extensive resources, large amounts of data, and sometimes involved labor-intensive scientific analysis.

This screening-level approach will ultimately allow the Agency to address the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act requirements to consider available information concerning cumulative effects of pesticides having a common mechanism of toxicity while efficiently using resources.

As an example of how the EPA would implement the guidance, we are including in the docket a draft copy of the human health risk assessment for abamectin and emamectin benzoate, considering both cumulative and aggregate risks. Aggregate risks come from being exposed to the same chemical through multiple pathways, including inhalation, dermal, or oral. Using the proposed screening guidance, EPA determined that abamectin and emamectin benzoate share a similar toxicological profile. We have developed a screening level cumulative analysis for these two pesticides using highly conservative exposure assumptions. Specifically, dietary and residential exposures were assessed to determine whether there would be any potential cumulative concern.

EPA invites stakeholders to comment on this document at www.regulations.gov in Docket# EPA-HQ-OPP-2015-0422. EPA will be accepting public comments until August 28, 2015.

Learn more about how EPA assesses cumulative risk for pesticides.