EPA sent out this notice soliciting interested individuals to serve on a panel
to discuss FW exposure to Pesticides.

John 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


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- 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.Antonio@...
[mailto:Bravo.Antonio@...]
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 2:31 PM
To: John 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.

Antonio Bravo
Office of Water
US Environmental Protection Agency
202-566-1976