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Pesticide News Story: Comment Invited on Malathion Risk Management and Tolerance Reassessment Decision
For Release: December 1, 2006
EPA is inviting public comment until January 29, 2007, on its Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED) for malathion, a broad-spectrum organophosphate (OP) insecticide with many agricultural and residential uses. Malathion also is used in wide-area treatments such as USDA’s Boll Weevil Eradication Program, Medfly Eradication Programs, and regional public health mosquito control programs. On July 31, 2006, the Agency determined that most uses of pesticide products containing malathion are eligible for reregistration, provided that risk mitigation measures identified in the RED document are adopted and product labels are amended accordingly. Malathion tolerances – residue limits in food and feed – have been reassessed. With risk migitation measures described in the RED, malathion tolerances meet safety standards established by the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA).
Although previous malathion risk assessments indicated some risks of concern, the Agency refined the earlier assessments, revised risk estimates, and developed risk mitigation measures to address those earlier concerns.
- For drinking water and residential bystander risks, application rates (pounds per acre or numbers of applications) were reduced.
- Occupational risks were mitigated through personal protective equipment or engineering control requirements on the labels and extending restricted-entry intervals (REIs) for some sites.
- Ecological risks were addressed by adding buffer zone and spray drift requirements to the labels and by lowering application rates for many uses.
Malathion is a member of the OP class of pesticides, which share a common mechanism of toxicity by affecting the nervous system via cholinesterase inhibition. A cumulative risk assessment, which evaluates exposures based on a common mechanism of toxicity, was conducted to evaluate the risk from registered uses of OP pesticides, including malathion. With mitigation measures for over 40 individual OP pesticides from risk management decisions completed during the past several years, the cumulative risks associated with OP pesticides do not exceed FQPA regulatory levels of concern. For additional information, see the OP Cumulative Risk Assessment (2006 Update) on the Agency’s Web site and at Regulations.gov in docket number EPA-HQ-OPP-2006-0618.
The Malathion RED is available in docket number EPA-HQ-OPP-2004-0348 at Regulations.gov, and on the Agency’s malathion reregistration Web page at . The Federal Register notice is available on our Web site.