WASHINGTON -- EPA Administrator William Riley said theBush administration is considering an appeal of a federalappeals court decision last week that prohibited the use ofcancer-causing pesticides.

Speaking to a meeting of the American Farm Bureau Federationstate presidents on Monday, Riley said the EPA and the JusticeDepartment would weigh a reaction to the court decision overthe next 10 days.

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit inSan Francisco means that a 1958 amendment to the Food andDrug Act, the Delaney Clause, requires the EPA to ban sales ofup to 67 pesticides that have been found to cause cancer inlaboratory animals. The EPA has set what it believed were lowtolerable limits on residues of such pesticides, but did not bantheir use.

Riley said Congress may need to set new standards onpesticides.

Several bills before Congress offer several approaches toresolving the issue. The Bruce-Bliley bill, which is backed bythe White House, would allow regulators to weigh benefitsagainst the risks in set permissible pesticide residue limits.

A bill proposed by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Rep.Henry Waxman, D-Calif., would give the EPA greater latitude inapproving pesticides, but would require that a pesticide haveno more than one in a million lifetime risk of causing cancer.

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