US environmental regulators will now review pesticide safety more often

US environmental regulators are changing how they review the safety of pesticides. They will now regularly update rules about how much pesticide residue can be on food, rather than waiting for a crisis.

For years, rules about pesticide residue on food were often set and then rarely revisited. This meant that as new science emerged about health risks, or as pesticide use changed, the rules stayed the same. This change means that the safety limits for pesticides will be updated more frequently, based on current science and usage patterns.