News In Brief

Pesticide EDB inadequately monitored, House panel says

The Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) failed to adequately monitor the pesticide ethylene dibromide (EDB), a suspected carcinogen, even after indications arose in the 1970s that it did not dissipate from bread, citrus, and other foods as had been thought, a House subcommittee said Sunday.

The report criticized the FDA for delay in determining the danger of EDB, the use of which on US grain and fruit was banned by the Environmental Protection Agency last month. Delays in research and testing are ''by no means limited to EDB,'' the report concluded, and are common to other pesticides the FDA is supposed to monitor.