> The Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) of 1996 initiated EPA's Conventional Reduced Risk Pesticide Program. Its purpose is to expedite the review and registration process of conventional pesticides that pose less risk to human health and the environment than existing conventional alternatives. Riskier conventional alternatives are those pesticides EPA deems as having neurotoxic, carcinogenic, reproductive and developmental toxicity, or groundwater contamination effects.

> Carbamates and organophosphates (OPs) are a group of closely related pesticides used in agriculture and non-agricultural sites that affect functioning of the nervous system by targeting the cholinesterase system. A main concern with these insecticides is acute toxicity. Additionally, one member of the carbamates which is widely used in Florida, aldicarb, is strictly regulated largely because of groundwater contamination concerns. Carbamates and OPs are among EPA's first priority group of pesticides for review under the FQPA. EPA made alternatives to OP pesticides the first priority for review and regulatory decision-making. The conventional Reduced Risk pesticide Program screens OP alternatives for this initiative. 

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pi224

> Neonicotinoids are a class of insecticides acting selectively on insect nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). These compounds display strong insecticidal activities against various insect pests (including those showing resistance to other classes of insecticides) and good levels of safety in vertebrates, which has led to neonicotinoids showing the fastest growing sales of insecticides worldwide.

> The targets of neonicotinoids, nAChRs, belong to the cys- loop superfamily of ligand-gated ion channels that mediate fast synaptic transmission in both insects and mammals. The safety of neonicotinoid insecticides has been shown to stem mainly from their excellent selectivity for insect nAChRs

Actions of imidacloprid, clothianidin and related neonicotinoids on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors of American cockroach neurons and their relationships with insecticidal potency. 2006. Journal of Pesticide Science

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