The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted a Special Review of the EBDC fungicides from 1987-1992. Special Review is an open, administrative process where EPA reviews the risks and the benefits of a crop protection product. The purpose of the EBDC Special Review was to assess the dietary risks of ETU to consumers from eating foods from crops treated with EBDCs.
EPA Calls Results Positive for Farmers and Consumers. At the end of the review, EPA concluded that there was only a negligible dietary risk from forty-five of the EBDC uses and allowed those uses to remain on the labels (additional uses have been added since that time). In announcing the conclusion of the Special Review, the EPA Administrator at that time, William Reilly, stated that the decision
“follows the most extensive review, analysis and assessment of data ever undertaken on any pesticide….The fact that EPA is allowing many uses of EBDCs to continue should be good news for farmers and consumers alike. Without them, for some of the healthiest foods we eat (apples, bananas, corn, broccoli, - 45 uses), farmers might see more of their crops damaged, destroyed by fungus and disease – and consumers could see prices rise and supplies drop……Good science drove this policy.”
Opening Statement on EBDC Pesticides by William K. Reilly Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, February 13, 1992.
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