Issues in Risk/Benefit Evaluation for Pesticide Registration

Abstract

The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and its amendments and related legislation currently require that applicants for registration or reregistration of a pesticide demonstrate to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that there is not “any unreasonable risk to man or the environment, taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of use of the pesticide.” Present benefit evaluation guidelines call for consideration of effects on users, nonusers, consumers, GNP, and employment. Minimum guidelines call for a partial budgeting analysis and, if output effects of eliminating the pesticide appear large, a more sophisticated analysis using neoclassical multimarket economic-surplus concepts.