Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, October 13, 1994                   TAG: 9410130045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                  LENGTH: Medium

EPA SETTLEMENT COULD LEAD TO PESTICIDE BANS

Both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Resources Defense Council, a group that sued the EPA, hailed the agreement, part of a court settlement that must be approved by U.S. District Judge William Schubb in Sacramento, Calif.

The agreement could be signed as early as Dec. 2 if not challenged by industry.

At issue are pesticides that show up in processed foods such as raisins, cooking oil, tomato paste and flour in greater concentrations than in their raw ingredients: grapes, soybeans, tomatoes and wheat.

A 1992 court ruling said those processed foods can have no trace of pesticides found to cause tumors in animals or people, regardless of how small the actual risk of cancer.

The ruling dealt with a 1958 section of food law, the Delaney Clause, enacted before scientists could detect increasingly minute amounts of chemicals in products.

Residues in raw foods such as apples and tomatoes are regulated by a different standard that allows some risk, weighed along with the benefits to consumers and agriculture.

In practice, a pesticide that fails to meet the ``zero risk'' standard for tomato paste, for example, can't be allowed on whole tomatoes because there's no way to tell how the tomatoes will be used.

The agreement calls for the Environmental Protection Agency to rule within 60 days of settlement on a 1992 petition by the National Food Processors Association to cut the tie between rules for raw and processed foods.

The food processors say the Delaney standard was intended for food additives such as preservatives, not pesticides. Moreover, regulations should consider whether the processed foods are used as ingredients or eaten whole, said Juanita Duggan, the group's senior vice president for governmental affairs.

``Nobody eats flour,'' she said. ``But people do eat raisins.''

If the EPA refuses, it will take steps to ban the use of up to 36 chemicals on about 140 raw and processed foods. The first proposals would be announced in six months and cover 18 pesticides in some 60 processed foods.

Those uses would be banned within two years, and the remainder within five.

``This agreement assures that America will continue to enjoy the cheapest, most abundant and safest food supply in the world,'' said EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner.