US EPA

EPA announced the availability of the final contractor report entitled, Development of an Analytic Approach to Determine How Environmental Protection Agency’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Is Used By Non EPA Decision Makers. This contractor report analyzed how IRIS is used outside of the EPA, who these IRIS users are, and how well their needs are being met.The purpose of this project, Development of an Analytic Approach to Determine How Environmental Protection Agency’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Is Used By Non EPA Decision Makers, is to describe how IRIS is used by a small number of representative groups of users outside the EPA. This effort will help EPA enhance program accountability and performance, as measured by the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) evaluation.

The purpose of EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) is to provide timely, peer-reviewed human health assessments of priority environmental contaminants to support provide science-based assessment information to support Agency policymaking activities. EPA evaluates how well this purpose is met by tracking the citation of IRIS in Agency regulations and records of decisions. EPA is aware that environmental decision makers outside of EPA also draw on IRIS. For example, 40 percent of downloads during a given period are from non-EPA users. EPA is interested in understanding better who these IRIS users are, how they are using IRIS and how well their needs are being met.

The purpose of EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) is to provide timely, peer-reviewed human health assessments of priority environmental contaminants to support provide science-based assessment information to support Agency policymaking activities.

U.S. EPA. Development of An Analytic Approach To Determine How Environmental Protection Agency's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Is Used By Non-EPA Decision Makers (Final Contractor Report). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., 2008.