Summary

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) decision to retain 45 crop uses and cancel 11 other uses for a group of fungicides known as EBDC, focusing on how EPA handled concerns about EBDC human health risks. GAO noted that: (1) there were no significant weaknesses in the EPA review of EBDC health risks; (2) EPA retained most EBDC crop uses because of lower estimates of the carcinogenic risk from dietary exposure to EBDC; (3) an EPA market basket survey confirmed that EBDC residues on food crops were lower than first estimated; (4) EPA reevaluated the EBDC cancer potency factor and significantly reduced it; and (5) EPA calculations of average EBDC residue estimates resulted in minor discrepancies that, although they did not impact EBDC risk estimates, could significantly impair residue calculations for other pesticides.