- Committee Would
Give Input to FQPA
Managing Editor
The Tolerance Reassessment Advisory Committee, better known as TRAC, was a broad-based panel created to give input during the first round of the FQPA process. But the mandate for TRAC expired – the group held its final meeting in October of 1999.
A new committee called the Committee to Revise on Reassessment and Transition (CARAT) is being formed to fill in the gap. The mission of the new committee is to provide advice and counsel to the USDA and EPA regarding strategic approaches for pest management planning and tolerance reassessment for pesticides. The goal is to have representatives from environmental, public interest, industry trade, grower, state-local governments, public health officials and food processing groups at the table. The new committee will have fewer members than TRAC, which was perceived by some of its participants to be too large.
CARAT will be guided by the same principles Vice-President Al Gore laid out when he established TRAC to help both agencies assure smoother implementation of the act. The principles are:
• Implementation will be conducted in a manner that will minimize disruption of existing pest management systems.
• The result will be a sound, scientifically-based regulatory program, which is appropriately protective of public health.
• Implementation will be accomplished in a manner to protect the process rights of all interested parties.
• Implementation will provide appropriate transition periods for impacted pest management systems.
According to the Federal Register notice, the committee’s objectives will include identifying opportunities for reasonable transition and strategic pest management planning for agriculture and public health uses of pesticides; providing advice to promote sound science and transparency in the scientific risk assessments necessary to implement FQPA, including tolerance reassessment and pesticide reregistration; and assuring appropriate priority is given to risk management strategies for the pesticides that are not likely to lead to exposures to children.
The nomination process for CARAT was announced in the May 12 Federal Register and was left open until May 26. After that, the deadline to get the committee appointed and at work “relatively quickly,” according to Margie Fehrenbach of EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs.
“They want to decide on the committee members right after the May 26 deadline and have their first meeting in late June,” said Fehrenbach.
The identity of two of the committee’s members is already known. CARAT will be co-chaired by EPA Acting Deputy Administrator Michael McCabe and USDA Deputy Secretary Richard Rominger.
Fehrenbach added that all CARAT meetings would be open, and the public given a chance to speak. Information on upcoming meetings would be available as well.
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