The recent elimination of the Delaney Clause, a 38-year-old law regulating pesticide residues in food, brings food-safety policy into sync with modern science, says a UC Davis toxicologist. "By removing the ban on any potentially carcinogenic pesticides that show up in processed foods, Congress is actually opening the way for development of new chemicals that would be far less risky," says Carl Winter, a Cooperative Extension toxicologist and director of the UC Davis FoodSafe Program. The Delaney Clause was drafted in 1958 when methods for detecting chemical residues in food were much cruder, Winter noted. Modern technology allows for the routine detection of residues in the parts-per-billion level. The Delaney Clause prohibited the presence, even in these minute amounts, of chemicals that had been shown to possibly cause cancer at much higher levels. Winter is hopeful that removal of the Delaney Clause will encourage development of agricultural pesticides that are much safer than those currently in use. "Consumers should be reassured that the revamped regulations will protect the safety of the nation's food supply," he said.