The passage of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) imposed a new standard on human health risk assessments performed for pesticides. Under FQPA, EPA was required to demonstrate that there was a "reasonable certainty of no harm" from the use of pesticides on foods and from other non-occupational exposures. The Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) has historically emphasized exposure to pesticides in foods in its risk assessments. FQPA increased the focus on exposure to the public from residential uses of pesticides. The most significant route of exposure by this pathway is dermal.

OPP has expanded its risk assessment process to evaluate dermal exposure over three time frames: short term (<30 days), intermediate term (1 to 6 months), and chronic (>6 months). These windows of time are used to establish endpoints for use in risk assessment. OPP's toxicity testing paradigm continues to focus on oral exposure. However, staff risk assessors have responded to the greater emphasis on dermal by attempting to creatively use existing data. In the meantime, OPP is considering approaches to modifying existing toxicity testing requirements to better address this issue.