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RiskWorld news article by Amy Charlene Reed, senior editor, reed@tec-com.com |
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| Posted February
18, 2000 -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it expects
to have part of its web site back online by Tuesday, February 22.
"We don't have any details yet on which parts of the web site will be
available first, but we do know that the earliest date that access to any
of our web site will be available is on Tuesday," an EPA spokesperson
told RiskWorld. EPA was forced to shut its web site
down unexpectedly on Wednesday following computer security concerns raised
by Chairman of the U.S. House Commerce Committee,
Rep. Tom Bliley, R-Va. (See
related article.)
Meanwhile, the non-profit Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment has one of EPA's major risk resources, the IRIS database, up and running online at its site at http://www.tera.org. "Fortunately, risk folks can still access EPA's IRIS risk values at our web site during this hopefully short period while EPA is offline," said Jacqueline Patterson of Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA). The IRIS risk values are important to risk assessors and managers in the United States and abroad as IRIS values represent the consensus of EPA's numerous offices and programs on risk estimates of "safe" doses. These values are used to evaluate the potential risk to humans from exposures to environmental contaminants. To access EPA's IRIS database, go to TERA's International Toxicity Estimates for Risk database at http://www.tera.org/iter. "It contains all of IRIS health risk values," Patterson said. "Abstracted information from IRIS -- including the RfD, RfC and cancer estimates, cancer classifications, critical endpoint and dose/concentration, uncertainty factors and principal study citations -- are presented in tabular form, alongside similar information from Health Canada, ATSDR, and independently peer-reviewed values." |
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Posted February 18, 2000 Go to:Copyright © 2000 by Tec-Com Inc. |
