Chapter 17 - Assessing pesticide risks to humans: putting science into practice

Summary

IPM has long been a staple of decision making in agricultural settings. In recent years, the concept of IPM has been widely utilized in non-agricultural pest management programs. While the foundation of IPM has been to better manage pests, in many aspects, IPM has come to symbolize the management of pesticide risks. Thus, it seems that IPM is both a pest management and an integrated pesticide management program. IPM practitioners today use the IPM principles to predict and manage the risks that both pests and pesticides pose to people and the environment (see Chapter 37). Here we will address how the risks of pesticides are evaluated under USA federal statutes and how mitigation measures can reduce risk.

Regulatory framework

Many of the older pesticides were metals (e.g. arsenic or copper) or compounds derived from plants (e.g. nicotine). Concerns were expressed that some of these substances could end up in processed food leading to food supply contamination. In 1906, the USA Congress passed the Food and Drugs Act to address the issue of adulterated products entering the food supply. This Act while general in language was quite powerful in that it became unlawful to manufacture a food product if it contained any unwanted or deleterious ingredients that could be injurious to human health. Congress would add to and clarify the Food and Drug Act over the years to update the law to meet growing concerns over food safety.