Recent Additions for 2004

The Framework for Inorganic Metals Risk Assessment (External Review Draft) is a cross-agency effort to develop guidance for assessing the human health and ecological risks associated with inorganic metals and metal compounds.

This document, which outlines and reviews the various types of information used in ten different watershed assessments, includes data tables that describe the data types, sources of data, data reliability, study contacts, and other information, along with the web links to access this information on the Internet.

The IRIS Chemical Assessment Tracking System is a compilation of status reports on EPA's IRIS assessments currently in progress. The Status Report for IRIS Chemical Assessments is viewable on line. This report shows the user where the chemical assessment is in its development.

EPA has completed the process of updating and revising, where appropriate, its Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter (PM) as issued in 1996 (usually referred to as the Criteria Document). Sections 108 and 109 of the Clean Air Act require that EPA carry out a periodic review and revision, where appropriate, of the air quality criteria (embodied in the Criteria Document) and national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for criteria air pollutants such as PM. The final version of the entire PM Criteria Document was issued in October 2004.

On October 15, 2004, the EPA transmitted to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) the NAS Review Draft of EPA's Exposure and Human Health Reassessment of 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-Dioxin (TCDD) and Related Compounds, in preparation for the first meeting of the NAS panel scheduled for November 22 and 23, 2004, in Washington, DC. For detailed information on the NAS's dioxin review activity, titled "Review of EPA's Assessment of the Health Implications of Exposure to Dioxins," please visit the NAS website at http://www.nas.edu . This will bring you to a description of the project, a list of the provisional panel, and information about the upcoming meeting.

NCEA announces new opportunities in it's Cincinnati Division. Deadline for submission is Nov. 10th & 12th.

EPA hydrologist, Malcolm Field, has developed a computer program, FLOWTHRU, to facilitate the manipulation and processing of fluorescence data downloaded from a Turner Designs Model 10-AU-005 fluorometer. FLOWTHRU improves data collection by rapidly dispensing with unwanted header data, recognizing and adjusting to time-data breaks, and rewriting the data into decimal time units for processing by modeling programs such as QTRACER2. Dr. Field developed FLOWTHRU to cut down on time spent editing data(sets) and thereby improving data quality (less error) and efficiency.

NCEA has published the Example Exposure Scenarios to demonstrate how data from the Exposure Factors Handbook (U.S. EPA, 1997) may be applied for estimating exposures. The example scenarios presented here have been selected to best demonstrate the use of the various key data sets in the Exposure Factors Handbook, and represent commonly encountered exposure pathways.

This document is the final report for the 2004 external peer review for the IRIS Reassessment of the Inhalation Carcinogenicity of Naphthalene, prepared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), for the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). A panel of external peer reviewers met to discuss their responses to the charge questions on July 30, 2004. This document contains the final written comments of the external peer reviewers.

This project is an update on a database that compiled relevant scientific literature to identify both routine and standardized biological markers as well as new and emerging biological markers that would be relevant to the National Children's Study. Citations are mostly review articles, beginning as early as 1996, and supplemented with searches of the recent primary research literature from 2001-June 2004. A new feature of the database is the capability of conducting a multiple term search within the same field. The User's Guide has been incorporated into the MS ACCESS 2000 database as part of the help function.

A revised Chapter 9 is now available for public review and comment and will be reviewed by CASAC via a publically accessible teleconference on September 20, 2004. (For information on the CASAC meeting see 69 FR 52255, August 25, 2004.) EPA will also accept written public comments on revised Chapter 9 submitted by September 30, 2004. The final version of the entire PM Criteria Document is to be issued no later than October 29, 2004.

EPA released for public review and comment revised draft Chapters 7 and 8 of the Fourth External Review Draft of EPA's document, Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter on December 30, 2003. These chapters incorporate revisions made in response to earlier external review of those chapters, including comments received at the August 25 and 26, 2003, review meeting of the EPA Science Advisory Board's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC). At that meeting, CASAC reached closure on all chapters except Chapter 7 (toxicology), Chapter 8 (human health), and 9 (integrative synthesis). Since then CASAC has provided additional review comments on revised drafts of Chapters 7 and 8 (dated December 2003). EPA also made further revised drafts of Chapters 7, 8, and 9 available for CASAC and public review in June 2004. These revised draft chapters were reviewed by CASAC at a public meeting held July 20-21, 2004. Closure was achieved on Chapters 7 and 8.

The report, Final Report on the External Peer Review of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's draft document "Proposed Oral Reference Dose (RfD) for Barium and Compounds", contains the external reviewer's responses to the peer review charge and meeting notes from the meetings held June 10, 2004, and July 21, 2004.

EPA's IRIS Program is announcing that an external peer review panel meeting to review the inhalation cancer assessment and selected text in the external review draft document entitled, "Toxicological Review of Naphthalene: In Support of Summary Information on the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)"(NCEA-S-1707) was published in the [Federal Register Jul 7, 2004 [FRL-7783-2; E-docket No.: ORD-2004-0007]].

This preliminary draft document (Framework for Metals Risk Assessment (Framework)) will be the subject of a peer consultation workshop in July 2004. The purpose of the workshop is to prepare the document for review by the Science Advisory Board (SAB), later this year.

Symposium on the Development of Strategic Programs for Monitoring Ecological Impact from Plant-Incorporated Protectants (PIPs)
Date: August 3-5, 2004
Location: Sheraton Crystal City, VA.

The report, Summary Report of the Peer Review Workshop on the Neurotoxicity of Tetrachloroethylene (Perchloroethylene) Discussion, summarizes the discussions at a February 25, 2004, workshop that brought together recognized scientific experts to engage in a public discussion on the neurological effects of inhalation of tetrachloroethylene, as well as a review of studies that focus on these effects.

On December 30, 2003, EPA released for public review and comment revised draft Chapters 7 and 8 of the Fourth External Review Draft of EPA's document, Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter. These chapters incorporate revisions made in response to earlier external review of those chapters, including comments received at the August 25 and 26, 2003, review meeting of the EPA Science Advisory Board's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC). At that meeting, CASAC reached closure on all chapters except Chapter 7 (toxicology), Chapter 8 (human health), and 9 (integrative synthesis). Since then CASAC has provided additional review comments on revised drafts of Chapters 7 and 8 (dated December 2003). EPA is now making further revised drafts of Chapters 7, 8, and 9 available for CASAC and public review. These revised draft chapters will be reviewed by CASAC at a public meeting to be held July 20-21, 2004.

The NCS Technology Report from the National Children's Study Workshop meeting (Boston MA - May '03) is now available on the NCEA Website. For more specific information about the National Children's Study website visit http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov/events/workshops/index.cfm.

NCEA's 2004 Science Forum Posters: On June 1- 3, 2004, EPA held its 3rd annual Science Forum in Washington, DC. The 2004 EPA Science Forum - Healthy Communities and Ecosystems - is an opportunity to showcase EPA's scientific accomplishments, demonstrate EPA's commitment to quality science, and highlight the impact of science in EPA decision-making. An important part of the Science Forum is the presentation of posters that describe and illustrate some of these scientific accomplishments in a concise and approachable format. The 24 science posters presented by NCEA at this year's Forum are now available on the NCEA web site. Posters presented by scientists in other parts of ORD are available for viewing at...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing an external peer-review panel meeting for the draft document entitled, Proposed Oral Reference Dose (RfD) for Barium and Compounds (NCEA-S-1683). The document was prepared by EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) of the Office of Research and Development.

In February, 2004, the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), a part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Research and Development, sponsored a two-day public symposium on recently published scientific research related to the health effects of trichloroethylene (TCE). Handouts, speaker presentations, and a transcript of the meeting are now available on the TCE Symposium website.

On May 19, 2004, a workshop will be held to provide for an external panel review of EPA's interim final position paper, "An Evaluation of the Human Carcinogenic Potential of Ethylene Glycol Butyl Ether." The paper was used as part of the support for the Agency's proposed rule to delist ethylene glycol butyl ether (EGBE) from the HAP list (68 FR 65648, November 21, 2003). The purpose of this workshop is to evaluate the conclusions of EPA's position paper in light of the recent research and literature that has been submitted to the Agency in response to the Agency's proposed EGBE ruling.

The U.S. EPA is announcing a 45-day public comment period for the draft Toxicological Review and draft IRIS Summary for EPA's health assessment of phosgene. Any scientific views received on the content of the Toxicological Review or IRIS Summary prior to June 1, 2004, will be considered in subsequent drafts.

This document describes a strategy for developing the Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System (CADDIS). CADDIS is envisioned as a decision support system that will help investigators in EPA Regions, states, and tribes find, access, organize, and share information useful for causal evaluations in aquatic systems. It will include supporting case studies and analysis tools, and it will provide access to databases that contain information useful for causal evaluations. The system will be developed incrementally and iteratively, and frequent user input and feedback will be essential to the system's success.

The 2004 Annual Toxicology and Risk Assessment Conference, jointly sponsored by EPA, DOD, NIOSH, and ATSDR, will be held in the Cincinnati-Dayton area from April 26- 30, 2004. The theme for this year's conference is "Population Protection in a Dynamic Environment." The 2004 conference will include concurrent scientific sessions, risk assessment training courses, a poster session and a student poster competition. The conference proceedings are peer reviewed and published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. The conference is held with the cooperation of the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences and the American College of Medical Toxicology.

In December of 2002, NCEA released a public review draft of a risk assessment on impacts from inhalation of World Trade Center airborne contaminants. This assessment was titled, Exposure and Human Health Evaluation of Airborne Pollution from the World Trade Center Disaster. A public comment period between January and March of 2003 was followed by a peer review expert panel meeting in New York City on July 14 and 15, 2003. EPA has now made public a report on that peer review meeting. This report captures the main points and highlights of the meeting, including a compilation of the individual reviewers' comments, summaries of the panel discussions, and appendices which include comments and materials provided by the public during the meeting. EPA is in the process of addressing the expert comments heard at the meeting, as well as the public comments.

This document builds on existing EPA guidance and experience to provide additional guidance in assessing ecological risk. It describes a set of endpoints, known as generic ecological assessment endpoints, that can be considered and adapted for specific ecological risk assessments.

Notice of Peer Review Workshop to discuss "Neurotoxicity of Tetrachloroethylene (Perchloroethylene): Discussion Paper"

Link 1:   Neurotoxicity of Tetrachloroethylene (Perchloroethylene): Discussion Paper

Link 2:   Charge to the Tetrachloroethylene (Perchloroethylene) Neurotoxicity Expert Panel

On February 12, 2004 the NCEA announced in a Federal Register notice the details of a neurotoxicity consultants meeting on the effects of tetrachloroethylene (perchloroethylene). The notice gives information about the time and place of the meeting as well as the registration information. This is an amendment to a previous NCEA posting that announced the availability of the background discussion paper and the charge to the consultants.

This new report discusses a program of research that investigated the integration of ecological risk assessment and economics, focused on watersheds as the scale for analysis. It presents the results of three case studies (Big Darby Creek watershed of Ohio; the upper Clinch and Powell River watersheds of Virginia and Tennessee; and the central reach of the Platte River in Nebraska) and offers a conceptual approach for the integration of ecological risk assessments and economic analysis.

Today NCEA is posting the charge which will be discussed at the expert panel meeting on neurotoxicity issues associated with exposure to tetrachlroroethylene. This charge is to be the main agenda topic for the meeting. The time and place of the meeting will be announced in a future Federal Register Notice. In addressing this charge, the panel of neurotoxicity experts will use the discussion paper, announced in the Federal Register on December 30, 2003 and posted at that time on this web site, as background material.

The U.S. EPA is hereby providing for public information a draft Toxicological Review, draft IRIS Summary, and charge to external peer reviewers for EPA's health assessment of dichlorobenzenes. These documents are provided for public viewing during an external peer review period. While EPA is not soliciting public comments by this action, any scientific views received on the content of the Toxicological Review or IRIS Summary prior to March 1, 2004 will be considered in subsequent drafts.

The National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), a part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Research and Development, is sponsoring a two-day public symposium on recently published scientific research related to the health effects of trichloroethylene (TCE). The primary purpose of this symposium is to gather information on recently published scientific research for use by EPA in assessing the human health risks of TCE. EPA wants to hear from the scientists who are at the forefront of this TCE-related research.

The U.S. EPA is hereby providing for public information a draft Toxicological Review, draft IRIS Summary, and charge to external peer reviewers for EPA's health assessment of toluene. These documents are provided for public viewing during a second external scientific peer review period. These documents have previously undergone external peer review in August 2002. While EPA is not soliciting public comments by this action, any scientific views received on the content of the Toxicological Review or IRIS Summary prior to February 19, 2004 will be considered in subsequent drafts.

First, exposure modeling is conducted to estimate the potential dose at the absorption barrier (e.g., gastrointestinal tract, skin, and lung) and the results are linked with physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling to estimate measures of internal dose from exposure to all three routes for use in risk assessment. Second, a mixtures risk assessment method, based on additivity concepts presented in the Agency's mixtures guidance documents (U.S. EPA, 1986; 2000), is proposed to logically evaluate human health risks using total internal doses and oral toxicology dose-response data based on knowledge or assumptions regarding mode of action.

New quantitative methods for applying Relative Potency Factor (RPF) are shown addressing the important question of how to assess a mixture containing some chemicals that share a common toxic mode of action and other chemicals that do not. The biostatistical methods developed in this report provide alternative methods to evaluate a mixture under three scenarios of varying degrees of uncertainty. The simple case occurs when there is certainty that a common toxic mode of action is operating, so a dose addition approach can be applied. The second case occurs when the mixture components can be divided into independent mode of action subclasses; dose addition and response addition can be integrated to make the assessment. The third case occurs when mode of action is uncertain, so a joint dose-response modeling procedure is used to create a range of risk estimates.