US EPA

EPA is currently updating its Lead (Pb) Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) as part of the review of the primary (health) and secondary (welfare) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for Pb. The ISA will be completed by EPA's Office of Research and Development's (ORD) Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA). As part of the Pb review, EPA is announcing a series of webinar teleconference workshops to obtain input on preliminary draft materials of the Pb ISA from external expert reviewers. The workshop will be open to attendance by interested public observers by webinar and teleconference only. Preliminary draft materials reviewed during this workshop will not be disseminated publicly, and will only be made available to the expert reviewers to guide discussions and inform the development of the ISA. The public will have an opportunity to comment on the Integrated Science Assessment for Lead (External Review Draft) when it is made available for public comment and peer review at a later date.

The preliminary draft materials to be discussed in the workshops cover a range of subject areas including fate and transport of lead in environmental media; human and ecological exposure to lead; toxicological and epidemiological evidence for human health effects; and effects of lead on terrestrial and aquatic organisms. External expert evaluation of the preliminary draft materials will help ensure that the ISA is up-to-date and focuses on the key evidence necessary to inform the underlying scientific basis for the review of the Pb primary and secondary NAAQS. New scientific evidence – if any – that alters or substantiates findings on the effects of lead in humans or biota or decreases uncertainties identified in the previous ISA, especially at near current exposure concentrations, is of particular interest.

The Clean Air Act (CAA) directs EPA to identify certain pollutants which cause or contribute to air pollution or may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare and to issue air quality criteria for them. Pb is one of the six criteria pollutants for which EPA has established NAAQS. The CAA also requires EPA to conduct periodic reviews of the air quality criteria for each air pollutant listed in the Act. Based on such reviews, EPA either retains or revises the NAAQS for a given pollutant as appropriate. As a major component of these reviews, EPA assesses newly available scientific information and develops ISAs that provide the scientific basis for the reviews of the NAAQS.

This Federal Register notice announces a series of webinar and teleconference workshops to obtain input on preliminary draft materials for the Pb ISA.