EPA Holds Second Public Meeting
On Endocrine Disruptors

By Amy Charlene Reed, RiskWorld staff
E-mail to: reed@tec-com.com.

Lynn R. Goldman, assistant administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, announced that a second public meeting will be held October 31-November 1, 1996, in Washington, D.C., with stakeholder groups interested in assisting the Agency in screening and testing endocrine disruptors. An earlier meeting was held May 15-16.

The Agency is proposing the formation of an Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee (EDSTAC) to advise EPA on how to create and implement a screening and testing program for chemicals and pesticides that may interfere with human, fish, and wildlife development, behavior, and reproduction. Recent legislation (reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act and passage of the Food Quality Protection Act) has mandated that such a screening program be developed.

The committee's main role will be to develop a strategy for the screening and testing program, not to reinvent ongoing research activities, said Anthony Maciorowski of the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances.

"There has been some confusion over the committee's mission, which is to develop a strategy on the best way to do the screening and testing," he explained. "We can't test every chemical on every hormone - there are 60,000 to 80,000 chemicals in use in commerce, and there are approximately 50 hormones that cover a range of metabolical and growth functions. So if you start multiplying, you soon find that there is an infinite number of things to look at. The role of the committee is to develop a strategy to narrow this down."

After the committee has completed its recommendations and EPA has established the screening and testing program, the EPA will use data that the program generates in its risk management efforts.

"[T]he data that will be available as a result of the endocrine disrupter screening and testing program will be used to reduce risk to human health," stated an October 17 Federal Register notice. "It is anticipated that this overarching risk management goal will eventually require the development of approaches to synthesize exposure and hazard information and to incorporate synthesized exposure and hazard information into risk reduction and risk management decisions."

Because membership in the committee will be limited, a priority of the upcoming meeting is to find ways to consider the views of all interested parties.

"One of the primary agenda items for the October 31-November 1, 1996, meeting is to address questions of formation and membership of EDSTAC and procedures for ensuring that all stakeholders have an opportunity to be heard on the issues," the October 17 Federal Register notice stated. "EPA believes that it is important to have representatives of the chemicals industry; Federal and state government; representatives from environmental, public health, and labor organizations; and scientific expertise from academia on the Committee."

The first organizational meeting for the committee held on May 15-16 resulted in a convening report and a list of nominees to the committee, both of which are now available in RiskWorld.

The convening report outlined four tentative goals for the committee to address:

1. Develop a flexible process to select and prioritize chemicals for screening, recognizing the need to obtain and use appropriate exposure information in setting appropriate priorities.

2. Develop a process for identifying new and existing screening tests and mechanisms for their validation.

3. Agree on a set of available, validated screening tests for early application.

4. Develop a process and criteria for deciding when additional tests, beyond screening tests, are needed and how any of these additional tests will be validated.

Reservations to attend the upcoming meeting, which will be held at Sheraton City Centre Hotel in Washington, D.C., were required by October 24 (by contacting Donald Walker at telephone (301) 907-3844, extension 247, or e-mail dwalker@tascon.com); however, others will be admitted if space is available.

For information on the meeting, contact Anthony Maciorowski by telephone (202) 260-3048 or e-mail maciorowski.anthony@epamail.epa.gov; or Gary Timm by telephone (202) 260-1859 or e-mail timm.gary@epamail.epa.gov at EPA.

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EPA Holds Second Public Meeting On Endocrine Disruptors

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EPA Holds Second Public Meeting
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