Since 1982, members of our staff have supported EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs. As part of this contract, our staff assess environmental and human health impacts on anthropogenic chemicals. The agricultural industry is critical to food and textile production, it is a large contributor to the U.S. economy. Not only does the industry provide food and materials for the U.S., it also provides products that are high-demand exports for other countries. Our dedicated staff help support this important industry by helping to ensure products used by the agricultural industry aren’t adversely impacting humans, animals, and the surrounding environment.

Bee in a large, bright yellow bloom

Our work consists of

  • Evaluating pesticide residues in food and feed crops as well as livestock
  • Evaluating mammalian toxicity data for agricultural and industrial chemicals
  • Determining critical end-points, no-observed-adverse-effect levels and lowest-observed-adverse-effect, reference doses or reference concentrations, and cancer values
  • Assessing risk and analyzing weight of evidence
  • Evaluating chemical toxicity to non-target species
  • Determining no-observed-adverse-effect levels and lowest-observed-adverse-effect levels
  • Monitoring movement, metabolism, and degradation of chemicals in the environment
  • Evaluating regulatory compliance and quality assurance

For 41 years our staff have been providing these services to EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs, making this contract our longest client relationship!

Close-up view of a blueberry bush with hundreds of blueberries at all stages of ripeness
Blueberries rely on bees to pollinate them in order to produce fruit.

Mature cornfield stretching along side a road.
Amongst other uses, corn is often used as a feed crop, one in which our staff evaluate pesticide residues.

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Honoring Our Veterans 

Several of our employee owners have served in various branches of the military in various capacities. Thank you for your service!  

Bee on a flower

Developing a Database for Ecosystem Service Models 

CSS scientists have been major developers and contributors to the online U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s EcoService Models Library (ESML) database since its inception in 2012. The ESML database contains detailed but concise descriptions of ecosystem service models to facilitate the selection of models by ecosystem scientists for a variety of management and research applications. The…