CARES is a state-of-the-art software program designed to conduct complex exposure and risk assessments for pesticides, such as the assessments required under the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act. CARES was originally developed under the auspices of CropLife America (CLA) (formerly the American Crop Protection Association), which conceived the project, provided funding, and oversaw the program’s evolution. Scientific and technical contributions to the program’s development came from a broad team of experts, including: scientists from CLA’s member companies and staff; consultants from infoscientific.com, Novigen Sciences (now Exponent), Sielken & Associates, and Summit Research; and scientists from USEPA and USDA. With its transfer to the ILSI Research Foundation (ILSI RF), the CARES program and source code will continue to be publicly available at no charge. Also, the full range of stakeholders will be invited to contribute to the technical and scientific advancement of CARES.
CARES allows risk assessors to estimate exposure to a single pesticide occurring via ingestion, dermal, and inhalation routes from food, drinking water, and residential sources (i.e., aggregate exposure). CARES can also estimate concurrent exposure to multiple pesticides having the same mechanism of toxicity (i.e., cumulative exposure). Risk can be estimated for the U.S. population or for a user-specified subset population, for a range of durations (acute, short-term, intermediate-term and chronic). A number of CARES generated assessments have been completed by pesticide registrants and are currently under review by USEPA. While CARES is currently designed to address pesticide exposure, ILSI RF is investigating its potential for application to other types of assessments, such as nutrient intake analysis.