Worldwide Regulatory Guidance Values Applied to Direct Contact Surface Soil Pesticide Contamination: Part I—Carcinogenic Pesticides

Abstract

Regulatory agencies worldwide have developed regulatory guidance values (RGVs) for nearly 800 pesticides. Analysis of the residential surface soil guidance values applied to the most frequently regulated current-use agriculture, home, and garden pesticides is presented. Part I concentrates on values applied to atrazine, simazine, and trifluralin. These are unique among commonly used pesticides because they are generally considered to be human carcinogens. Their use has been banned in much of the world, but they are commonly used in the United States. Regulatory guidance values applied to these 3 pesticides vary by 8.6, 5.5, and 5.1 orders of magnitude. Risk model coefficient–bounded set uncertainty analysis is applied to help analyze this variability. Cancer risk model uncertainty bounds appear to contain 36.3%, 43.0%, and 49.5% of the RGVs. Most of the remaining values appear to exceed a lifetime cancer incidence risk of 1 × 10−6 and may not be adequately protective of human health.