Evaluation System for Off-job, Non-food (Home) Pesticide Exposure

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is refining its non-dietary residential exposure assessment to improve overall quality and achieve more realistic exposure estimates. This move comes as the agency focuses on exposures in and around the home, including applications in schools, parks, and day care centers.

The EPA's current framework for assessing non-occupational, non-dietary (residential) exposure to pesticides involves an aggregate risk assessment that considers pesticide exposure from three major sources: food, drinking water, and residential (non-occupational) environments. The assessment adds together exposures from these sources that share the same toxicological endpoints, considering differences in exposure route and duration, to estimate combined risks.

In practice, the EPA evaluates these exposures quantitatively where data permit, but for some pesticides with negligible dietary or residential exposure or low toxicity, a full quantitative aggregate assessment may not be required.

Regarding how the EPA is refining these assessments, recent agency documents indicate the EPA is strengthening the registration review process under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). This involves updated policy advice and regulatory development through bodies such as the Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee (PPDC), attentive to aggregate exposures and continuing risk management improvements.

While the search results from August 2025 do not provide specific new technical methodologies for refining residential exposure assessment, the EPA's continuing registration reviews and tolerance actions reflect an iterative process to better integrate combined exposure pathways, including residential ones, consistent with statutory requirements under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).

In summary, the EPA is working to improve the quality of its residential exposure assessment estimates. The agency's refinement of non-dietary residential exposure assessments is not specified in detail within the current paragraph, but it is clear that the EPA is committed to ongoing evaluation of pesticide tolerances and safety standards, including residential exposure considerations.

The importance of non-dietary residential exposure assessment has increased with the passage of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 and its increased emphasis on the protection of children. However, the current paragraph does not mention the Act, its impact on residential exposure assessment, or the EPA's efforts to improve its assessments in relation to the Act.

Exposures that occur as a result of pesticide applications in schools, parks, and day care centers are included under the term "residential." This type of assessment primarily focuses on exposures that occur in and around the home, which is otherwise known as residential exposure assessment. Residential exposures are "nondietary" in nature, meaning they occur through the skin or inhaled.

It's worth noting that the EPA's non-dietary residential exposure assessment is generally conservative in nature. However, the document does not provide information on how this generally conservative nature affects specific exposure estimates.

For those interested in learning more about the EPA's framework for assessing non-occupational, non-dietary (residential) exposure to pesticides, a document titled "Framework for Assessing Non-occupational, Non-dietary (Residential) Exposure to Pesticides (pdf)" (99.37 KB) is available.

These improvements in the EPA's residential exposure assessment, focusing on applications in schools, parks, and day care centers, are part of the broader health-and-wellness considerations within environmental-science, as the agency strives to reduce potential adverse effects of pesticides on individuals. The strengthening of the registration review process under FIFRA, such as the updated policy advice and regulatory development through bodies like the PPDC, emphasizes the importance of evaluating aggregate exposures and continual risk management improvements, particularly those related to residential environments.