1. Modeling Dietary Pesticide Exposure Using Consumption and Pesticide Residue Survey Data
Aaron Niman, LT (USPHS)
Office of Pesticide Programs | Health Effects Division
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Environmental Health Category Day
2011 COA Conference, New Orleans, LA
June 20-23, 2010
Health Effects Division
Office of Pesticide Programs

2. Objectives
Provide overview of U.S. EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) and regulatory role in food safety
Introduce OPP’s dietary exposure assessment methodology
Approach
Dietary Models
Key National Surveys
Describe recent efforts to update OPP’s Food Commodity Intake Database

3. Office of Pesticide Programs
Antimicrobials
Health Effects
Environmental Fate & Effects
Biopesticides & Pollution Prevention
Biological & Economic Analysis
Registration
Pesticide Re-Evaluation
Field & External Affairs IT
Office Director
Roughly 700 Staff and Annual Budget ~150 Million USD
4 Risk Assessment Divisions
2 Risk Management Divisions
Communications & Stakeholder Engagement
Economic and Lab Analysis
IT Support

4. Major OPP Regulatory Statutes
Federal Statute
OPP Authority
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act
(FIFRA)
Established U.S. EPA as pesticide licensing agency
Established risk/benefit standard for registering pesticide products
Grants U.S. EPA strong authority to obtain toxicity and exposure data from pesticide registrants
Grants U.S. EPA ability to regulate labels and packaging
Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act
(FFDCA)
Grants U.S. EPA authority to establish pesticide tolerances for foods and feeds
Requires that FDA and USDA monitor and enforce tolerances

5. Major OPP Regulatory Statutes
Food Quality Protection Act of 1996
Amended both FIFRA and FFDCA
Established more health protective standard
Required OPP to re-evaluate over 10,000 pesticide tolerances
Required more advanced assessments methods
Aggregate pesticide exposure
Food + Residential + Water
Cumulative effects of pesticides with common mode of toxicity
Evaluate exposure to multiple OP pesticide, rather than individual compounds
Special sensitivity of infants and children
Additional 10X factor applied to reference levels

6. OPP Risk Assessment Framework
Four broad categories of risk assessment…
Food
Aggregate
-Food
- Drinking water
- Residential
Cumulative
Occupational
… each of which are evaluated in terms of toxicity testing on
Acute
Subchronic
Chronic
Carcinogenicity
Reproductive/Developmental
Neurotoxicity
Genetics

7. Dietary Risk Assessment
Approach
Evaluate food consumption patterns and residue concentrations that lead to highest potential for exposure
Assessments range from simple to complex, but based on same general exposure algorithm
Tiering process used to refine exposure assessment to reflect more realistic assumptions
All Consumption Values
All Residue Values
Range of Dietary
Exposures X =

8. Dietary Risk Assessment
OPP Residue Tiering Process
Tier 1 -- Tolerance-level residues/100%CT
% Crop Treated
Field trial data
PDP/FDA data
Processing studies
Cooking Factors
Bridging studies
Residue degradation/decline studies
Market basket data
Tier 4 -- highly refined residues
residue refinements
Refinements

9. Dietary Risk Assessment
Higher Tiered Approaches
Population-based approach to evaluate of possible exposures
Generally utilize dietary exposure models to simulate exposure
DEEM (Dietary Exposure Evaluation Model )
CARES
SHEDS-Dietary (Stochastic Human Exposure and Dose Simulation) X =
All Consumption Values
All Residue Values
Range of Dietary
Exposures

10. Dietary Risk Assessment Models
Exposure assessment models based on nationally-representative monitoring surveys
Key data surveys and databases:
USDA’s What We Eat In America (WWEIA)
Nationally representative food consumption survey
USDA’s Pesticide Data Program (PDP)
Nationally representative commodity residue sampling program
U.S. EPA’s Food Commodity Intake Database (FCID)
Recipe database that links WWEIA foods to PDP residue data

11. Dietary Risk Assessment Models
Food Consumption
(WWEIA)
Food Recipe Database
(FCID)
Raw Ingredient Consumption
Dietary Exposure =
Ingredient Pesticide Residue
(PDP)
Acceptable Level
aPAD, cPAD, etc.
Risk

12. USDA’s What We Eat In America
National food survey conducted as part of the National Health Assessment and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
Collected on two-year continuous basis
Nationally representative and uses consistent data collection methods
Data collected on two days of 24-hour dietary recall
Captures dietary recall data on foods as reported eaten
e.g., pizza, cake, cheese, chicken tortilla, etc.
Additional Information:

13. USDA’s Pesticide Data Program
Sampling program that analyzes pesticide residue from food samples collected near the point of purchase (i.e., grocery stores)
Sample analysis (as if for consumption)
Often targets foods consumed by children
Pesticide Data Program Participating States
Additional Information:

14. Food Commodity Intake Database (FCID)
Translates foods as reported eaten to raw agricultural commodities using U.S. EPA food vocabulary
Converts more than 5,000 food codes into recipes containing roughly 540 difference food commodities
Database may also have useful applications in risk assessment and identification of ingredient-based disease outbreaks
Examples include:
Apple pie  apples, wheat, soybean oil, etc.
Big Mac  wheat flour, beef, cucumbers, etc.
Cheese Pizza  wheat flour, milk, tomatoes, etc.

15. Food Commodity Intake Database: Example

16. Food Commodity Intake Database (FCID)
Also includes additional information on food commodities (used subsequently in exposure modeling)
Cooked Status (Yes, No)
Food Form (Fresh, frozen, etc.)
Cooking Method (Baked, boiled, etc.)
OPP currently updating FCID so that it is able to link to WWEIA consumption data collected in NHANES

17. FCID Graphical User Interface
OPP working to improve accessibility of FCID
Developed database and user interface in MS Access
Working to develop web application with USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service and U-Maryland’s Joint Institute of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN)
Functionality
Improve transparency of coded fields
Make recipes fully searchable
Make recipe format more user-friendly
Link FCID directly to WWEIA
Enable users to estimate consumption of food commodities
Weighted mean and percentile calculations

18. Search Recipes by Food Name

19. Next Steps Dietary Exposure Evaluation Model FCID Updates and Tools
Adding more recent consumption data
Working to make free and publically available
FCID Updates and Tools
More compatible with more recent NHANES-WWEIA food consumption
Foodrisk.org Web Application
Recipe search tool
Population consumption estimate tool

20. Additional Information:
Acknowledgements:
Katie Egan
Allison Nowotarski
Toiya Goodlow
Sheila Piper
Ranwa Hammamy
Kristin Rury
David Hrdy
Bernie Schneider
Yuen-Shaung Ng
Julie Van Alstine
Aaron Niman
Phil Villanueva
Additional Information:
EPA Pesticide Website:
Purdue Pesticide Program Resources: