[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 165 (Tuesday, October 24, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15572-S15573]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      FOOD QUALITY PROTECTION ACT

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join as a cosponsor of 
S. 1166, the Food Quality Protection Act, introduced by Senator Lugar.
  This legislation addresses three major issues: the need to ensure 
that 

[[Page S 15573]]

tolerances of pesticides in food safeguard the health of infants and 
children; the need to encourage the registration of minor use 
pesticides; and the need to repeal the Delaney clause and replace it 
with a negligible risk standard for pesticide residues in both raw and 
processed foods.
  The Delaney clause was enacted in 1958 as part of the Federal Food, 
Drug, and Cosmetic Act to prohibit any residue of a food additive that 
has been found to cause cancer, no matter the amount of the risk to 
human health. In the intervening years, our ability to detect residues 
has improved, to the point where we can now detect minute amounts, even 
parts per trillion.
  Many including the Environmental Protection Agency agree the Delaney 
clause zero risk standard should be replaced with a de minimis 
standard. In fact, for a number of years, EPA has used a de minimis 
standard for regulating pesticide residues on food.
  However, as a result of the court decision in Les versus Reilly and a 
consent decree in California versus Browner, the Environmental 
Protection Agency will have to strictly enforce the Delaney clause the 
end of this year. Strict enforcement of the Delaney clause will result 
in the cancellation of tolerances of over 100 chemicals used in 
California agriculture, even if they pose only a negligible risk of one 
in a million additional risk of cancer in a lifetime. In order for 
agriculture to retain use of these chemicals, it is imperative that the 
Delaney clause be replaced with a negligible risk standards that 
protects human health, including the health of infants and children.
  S. 1166 replaces the Delaney zero risk standard with a negligible 
risk standard. EPA has been defining negligible risk as one additional 
cancer for every one million people exposed.
  The issue of food safety is extraordinarily important both to 
California agriculture and to the health of 32 million Californians. 
About 20 percent of the agricultural chemicals sold in the United 
States--about 500 billion pounds of chemicals--are used in the State 
annually. California has its own pesticide regulation program and in 
many cases has stricter standards for pesticides than the national 
standards.
  A concern that I have about S. 1166 is that it provides for national 
uniformity and preempts California's more stringent standards. I 
believe that States should be able to set tougher standards, and will 
move an amendment to do so.
  I will work to improve the bill as it goes forward, and to get a bill 
enacted. It is vital that we reform the Delaney clause this year.

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