Overview of Pesticide Advisory Committees

Advisory committees provide advice to EPA on pesticide regulatory, technical, and policy issues. Meetings are organized under the Federal Advisory Committee Act:

Meetings are open to the public.
Anyone can submit comments before or after meetings.
Anyone can make statements during meetings.

Current Advisory Committees

Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee (PPDC) meets regularly with EPA to discuss pesticide regulatory, policy, and program implementation issues.

FIFRA Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP), composed of independent scientists, advises on many of the more technically challenging scientific assessment issues faced by the pesticide program.

Human Studies Review Board (HSRB) provides independent advice on issues relating to the scientific and ethical review of research involving human subjects. Read about how the pesticide program works to ensure protection of human subjects.

Former Advisory Committees

EPA created several committees to advise on implementing the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA). Committee members represented a broad range of stakeholders, including pesticide companies, environmental/public interest groups, pesticide users and growers, farm worker representatives, public health officials, academia, federal representatives, state officials, and tribal government representatives. These groups included:

The Food Safety Advisory Committee (FSAC) was established immediately after passage of FQPA and advised on interim implementation policies.
The Tolerance Reassessment Advisory Committee (TRAC) (1998-99) focused on communicating science policies used in FQPA risk assessments and piloted the public participation process used in pesticide reregistration (a form of which continues to be used today in registering and re-evaluating pesticides).
The Committee to Advise on Reassessment and Transition (CARAT) (2000-03) recommended strategic approaches for pest management planning and pesticide tolerance reassessment.

Information on previous advisory committees is found in the archives. Search EPA Archive