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PA EPA CONT. UPDATE OF TEST GUIDELINES FOR PEST. AND TOX. SUB

Release Date: 08/30/96
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PA EPA CONT. UPDATE OF TEST GUIDELINES FOR PEST. AND TOX. SUB

FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 1996

EPA CONTINUES UPDATE OF TEST GUIDELINES FOR PESTICIDES AND TOXIC SUBSTANCES

EPA is announcing the availability of final stringent health and safety testing guidelines that industry is required to follow in conducting studies in support of pesticides and industrial chemicals. The guidelines are "Series 830-Product Properties Test Guidelines and Series 860-Residue Chemistry Test Guidelines." These test guidelines have been updated to achieve consistency within EPA's pesticides and toxic substances programs and to bring EPA's requirements into harmony with the international guidelines used by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Harmonizing EPA's unified library of test guidelines with those of OECD will reduce and conserve scientific resources, since the same data could be used to satisfy the requirements of the United States and other OECD member nations. OECD is an international organization whose membership includes most industrialized countries. These guidelines were revised and submitted to the Scientific Advisory Panel for peer review on Sept. 27, 1995. EPA also made the revised guidelines available to the public in the Federal Register on Aug. 25, 1995. The guidelines in this series were revised in response to peer review and public comment. Final guidelines are available from the U.S. Government Printing Office, on the Federal Bulletin Board. Electronic access is also available via Internet and in ASCII and PDF (portable document format) from the EPA Public Access Gopher (gopher.epa.gov) under the heading "Environmental Test Methods and Guidelines." Later this year, EPA intends to make available through GPO and the Internet the Spray Drift test guidelines (series 840) without any substantive changes. In addition, the revised test guidelines for Fate, Transport and Transformation for application to pesticides (series 835) and Product Performance (series 810) will be made available for public comment during 1996.

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