RE: Why is new pesticide adverse effects info so hard to get at?

[Rich Puchalsky <rpuchalsky@att.net>]

In case anyone is reading this unthreaded, I should mention that this is a reply to a question by Sue Darcey about difficulties using EPA libraries, databases, docket rooms, FOIA, etc.

I should probably leave it to EPA people to answer this one. But I can mention the problems I've had and why I think they occured.

FOIA (the Freedom of Information Act): What seems to happen in the FOIA process is that someone takes down your question, tries to figure out who in EPA knows the answer, and sends it to that person. That person then looks at what appeared on their desk and has the choice of doing the work to answer it or doing something that their boss has been telling them to get done. No contest there -- as a result, I never use FOIA for anything. The only way to get these questions answered is make phone calls to EPA staff; the element of personal contact makes it more likely that the busy EPA person will find time, and makes it much more likely that your question will be answered usefully, because you'll get to discuss it first.

Docket rooms: if you're lucky enough to live near Washington, DC, you may get to visit a docket room where EPA keeps photocopies or microfiche of all the material that is sent to them -- such as pesticide adverse effects notices. When I used the dockets for health effects info, I noticed through the visitor log that a private company copies all of them and resells the information to other companies, presumably in a searchable, electronic form. So, if you had lots of money, you wouldn't need the docket room. I assume that EPA doesn't do this themselves because of budget restrictions.

EPA libraries I've found to be pretty good, given budget constraints, if you live near one. They aren't going to have things like pesticide health effects notices, though; those are in docket rooms. EPA databases are going up on the Web all the time, either through EPA sites, or through environmental group sites -- for instance, I helped put up the database of abstracts of health effect notices for chemicals under TSCA (the Toxic Substances Control Act) on RTK NET (www.rtk.net), after EPA agreed to donate the database. As far as I know, some of the pesticide databases are available off the EPA Web site, but I think that the health effect notices you're talking about are not. I don't even know whether the submissions have been made into an electronic database.