Introduction

The Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) of 1996 initiated the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Conventional Reduced Risk Pesticide Program. Its purpose is to expedite the review and registration process of conventional pesticides that pose less risk to human health and the environment than existing conventional alternatives. Riskier conventional alternatives are those pesticides EPA deems as having neurotoxic, carcinogenic, reproductive, and developmental toxicity, or groundwater contamination effects. It serves as a means to ensure that reduced risk pesticides enter the channels of trade and are available to growers as soon as possible. Reduced risk decisions are made at the use level. The program does not apply to biological or antimicrobial pesticides, which are handled through separate expediting processes.

Advantages of Reduced Risk Pesticides

Compared to existing conventional pesticides, reduced risk pesticides may provide a number of benefits:

low impact on human health

lower toxicity to nontarget organisms (e.g., birds, fish, plants)

low potential for groundwater contamination

low use rates

low pest resistance potential

compatibility with Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices

Criteria for Consideration

EPA established an expedited review for manufacturers applying to register pesticides that may reasonably be expected to accomplish at least one of the following:

reduce the risks of pesticides to human health

reduce the risks of pesticides to nontarget organisms

reduce the potential for contamination of groundwater, surface water, or other valued environmental resources

broaden the adoption of IPM strategies, or make such strategies more available or more effective

Carbamate and Organophosphate Pesticides and Current Use Trends

Carbamates and organophosphates (OPs) are a group of closely related pesticides used in agriculture and nonagricultural sites that affect functioning of the nervous system by targeting the cholinesterase system. A main concern with these insecticides is acute toxicity. Additionally, one member of the carbamates widely used in Florida, aldicarb, is strictly regulated largely because of groundwater contamination concerns. Carbamates and OPs are among EPA's first priority group of pesticides for review under the FQPA. EPA made alternatives to OP pesticides the first priority for review and regulatory decision-making. The conventional Reduced Risk Pesticide Program screens OP alternatives for this initiative. Table 1 provides a list of reduced risk and OP alternative pesticides currently registered for use in the United States. Some active ingredients listed in Table 1 are not registered for use in Florida.

EPA determines if a candidate is a potentially significant OP alternative by an approach that includes, but is not limited to, consideration of the following factors:

The affected OPs collectively have a significant market share for the specified use pattern.

Currently registered alternatives, if any exist, have constraints that prevented their widespread adoption as alternatives to the affected OPs, such as inferior efficacy or pest-resistance issues.

The proposed reduced risk alternative appears to overcome many of the constraints of the alternatives.

The IR-4 (Interregional Research Project No. 4) program is involved in making sure that pesticides are registered for use on minor crops. Minor-use pesticides are those that, for a variety of reasons, produce relatively little revenue for their manufacturers; they may be registered for use with a seldom-seen pest or for a crop that is not grown by a large number of producers. However, in Florida's agricultural setting, minor crops include some high-revenue fruit, vegetable, and ornamental crops. Based on publicly available data from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and the CropLife Foundation, a 2009 report by IR-4 indicated that from 1994 to 2006, OP use in the United States has shown an overall decline by approximately 50%. During the same period, carbamate use declined 70%.

A direct benefit of the reduction has been to the environmental load. The environmental load is the rate of application (lbs/acre) of chemicals to the environment. The reduced risk pesticides are generally used at significantly lower application rates than the conventional compounds they are replacing, which has the effect of decreasing the amount of chemical applied to the environment. The trend from 1994 to 2006 has shown a 45% combined decrease in the environmental load for the carbamate and organophosphate insecticides.

Acute toxicity concerns have also been addressed with the increased number of reduced risk pesticides currently registered for use. Of the cholinesterase-inhibiting insecticides, 73% of these compounds most widely used in the United States fall into the highest toxicity class of EPA and none are in the safest class. By contrast, 64% of the reduced risk insecticides fall into the highest safety class, and the rest are in the next safest group III.

†OP alternative status was not considered by the Reduced Risk Program for conventional pesticides until 1999.

Footnotes

1.

This document is PI224, one of a series of the Agronomy Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Original publication date January 2010. Revised April 2013. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

The use of trade names in this publication is solely for the purpose of providing specific information. UF/IFAS does not guarantee or warranty the products named, and references to them in this publication do not signify our approval to the exclusion of other products of suitable composition. All chemicals should be used in accordance with directions on the manufacturer's label.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other UF/IFAS Extension publications, contact your county's UF/IFAS Extension office.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, UF/IFAS Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A & M University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, dean for UF/IFAS Extension.