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RCED-94-171R 1 (1994-07-15)

handle is hein.gao/gaobackpp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: United States GAO Gener Accounting Office Wington, D.C. 20548 Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division B-256727 July 15, 1994 Dr. Lynn R. Goldman Assistant Administrator, Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances Environmental Protection Agency Dear Dr. Goldman: At the request of Senator John Glenn, we recently reviewed the process leading to EPA's February 1992 decision to retain 45 crop uses for a group of fungicides known as EBDCs (ethylene bisdithiocarbamates), while canceling 11 uses. Although we found no significant weaknesses in the decision process, we did find weaknesses in EPA's determination of average residue estimates for EBDCs and ethylenethiourea (ETU), the metabolite product common to all EBDCs. During our review, we observed that EPA made numerous calculations in determining residue values and risk factors. Because many of the computations were computed manually and were not independently verified, we checked the calculations for some of the residue estimates. Using EPA's criteria and formula for determining average residues, we tested the agency's computation of the mean residue estimates for 17 foods and/or food forms (raw, frozen, paste, puree, etc.). We found 15 discrepancies in 34 EBDC and ETU residue estimates. These discrepancies, which were discussed with EPA staff, appeared to be fairly minor--in that they generally involved decimal numbers that were off by one or more digits at the fourth decimal place. For example, we calculated a mean ETU residue estimate of 0.0013 parts per million (ppm) for frozen broccoli, while EPA used 0.0021 ppm; and we calculated a mean of 0.0074 ppm for tomato paste, while EPA used 0.0073 ppm. Eight discrepancies were due to using an incorrect figure (for the percentage of the crop treated, for instance), four GAO/RCED-94-171R, EBDC Residue Estimates

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