Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Methyl Parathion Expert Panel Report

April 24-25, 1997
Atlanta, Georgia

Note: While the original publication dates on some of ATSDR's documents may not appear to be current, the information in the documents is valid and may still provide relevant information.

Charge to the Expert Panel

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) convened an expert panel workshop on April 24 and 25, 1997, in Atlanta, Georgia, to discuss issues related to illegal spraying of the pesticide methyl parathion (MP) in residences. The purpose of the expert panel was to assist ATSDR, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and state and local health departments in addressing key issues of science, public health practice, and risk management related to this indoor use of methyl parathion. The panel was asked to address a set of key issues raised by the governmental interagency Methyl Parathion Health Sciences Steering Committee (hereafter, the steering committee).

The expert panel decided to address these issues in two separate work groups: Risk Identification/Management and Public Health Practice. The Public Health Practice Work Group further subdivided their tasks into Health Education/Risk Communication and Clinical Practice. The Risk Identification/Management Work Group was chaired by Daniel Hryhorczuk, MD, MPH, and comprised Janice Chambers, PhD, Jim Riviere, DVM, PhD, Stanley Shuman, MD, PhD, and Sheldon Wagner, MD. The Public Health Practice Work Group was chaired by Caron Chess, MS. Members of the Health Education/Risk Communication subgroup were Ms. Chess and Luz Claudio, PhD. Members of the Clinical Practice subgroup were Mike O'Malley, MD, MPH, and Victor Roth, MD, MPH. This report includes the advice and of the individual work groups as well as advice and on overarching issues between the work groups that were addressed by the expert panel in plenary session. The panel also identified critical data gaps and knowledge needs that must be addressed to develop science-based risk management decisions.

The opinions and put forth by the panel are based on a time-limited review of materials and data that were presented to the panel by organizers and observers, as well as on our personal expertise and experience. These opinions and are not based on a critical review of all available scientific literature on these topics or a thorough review of all available field data collected by these agencies. For those reasons, we believe that the opinions and in this report should be continually re-examined and action plans updated as new or previously unreviewed data become available. Also, the panel was asked to focus specifically on MP and did not address the issue of combined exposures to multiple pesticides or other environmental toxins. The panel acknowledges that concurrent exposures to other agents may occur; such exposures should be considered in site-specific risk management.

Panel Members

• Daniel O. Hryhorczuk, MD, MPH (Chair)
• Caron Chess, MS (Chair of Public Health Practice Workgroup)
• Janice E. Chambers, PhD
• Luz Claudio, PhD
• Mike A. O'Malley, MD, MPH
• Jim E. Riviere, DVM, PhD
• Victor S. Roth, MD, MPH
• Stanley Schuman, MD, PhD
• Sheldon Wagner, MD

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