On February 28, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of three Group B -- Antimicrobial Efficacy Test Guidelines, under Series 810, Product Performance Test Guidelines.  The guidelines provide recommendations for the design and execution of laboratory studies to evaluate the effectiveness of antimicrobial pesticides against public health microbial pests.  83 Fed. Reg. 8666.  The three final guidelines are:

• OCSPP 810.2000 -- General Considerations for Testing Public Health Antimicrobial Pesticides -- Guidance for Efficacy Testing;

• OCSPP 810.2100 -- Sterilants, Sporicides, and Decontaminants -- Guidance for Efficacy Testing; and

• OCSPP 810.2200 -- Disinfectants for Use on Environmental Surfaces -- Guidance for Efficacy Testing.

EPA states these “test guidelines are part of a series of test guidelines established by the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) for use in testing pesticides and chemical substances. The test guidelines serve as a compendium of accepted scientific methodologies and protocols for testing that is intended to provide data to inform regulatory decisions.”

EPA issued draft guidelines in June 2015 and solicited comments.  EPA states that some comments received on those draft guidelines have been incorporated into the final versions.  EPA states that the revision “is more user friendly and clarifies topics such as confirmatory data, repeat testing, hard water formulation, wetness determination testing for towelettes, and internal toilet testing … [and] also includes information on supplemental testing policies such as lower certified limits, revision of the AOAC Use Dilution Method performance standards and clarified technical details for efficacy testing.”

Documents pertaining to the revision of the product performance guidelines, including public comment submissions, and the agency’s response to comments are available at www.regulations.gov, in Docket No. EPA-HQ-OPP-2015-0276.