News: TERA methylmercury

Risk Panel To Consider
New Methylmercury Reference Dose

RiskWorld News Brief

The non-profit risk assessment corporation Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA) will convene an expert panel of risk assessors on January 12 and 13, 1998, to consider a site-specific reference dose for ingestion of methylmercury, a form of organic mercury, in fish. The meeting's agenda will also include a general discussion of methods to calculate data-derived uncertainty factors.

ICF-Kaiser International has developed the reference dose, which is an alternative to that of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and incorporates results from the Faroe Island and Seychelles Island studies. Aluminum Company of America has supported the work for use at a site in Texas.

The TERA-convened panel also plans to review an assessment of the plasticizer butyl benzyl phthalate, a plasticizer for PVC-based flooring products that is also used in biodegradable tampon ejectors, which Health Canada has developed under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

By sponsoring this and other peer review meetings, TERA’s officials say they hope "to provide an inexpensive and timely process for expert independent review of human health risk documentation developed by government, industry, environmental, or other groups." TERA often includes approved values in its ITER (International Toxicity Estimates for Risk) database, which can be found on line at http://www.tera.org.

To attend the methylmercury meeting, which is open to the public and will be held at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Medicine in Cincinnati, Ohio, observers must pre-register by December 31 by contacting Jacqueline Patterson at telephone (513) 521-7426 or e-mail patterson@tera.org. The $35 registration fee includes a copy of the review materials and lunch.

Organizations:

Health Canada http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/

ICF Kaiser International http://www.icfkaiser.com/

Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment http://www.tera.org

Alcoa http://www.shareholder.com/Alcoa/index.html

Mercury links:

http://www.epa.gov/reg5oair/glakes/hgnotes.htm

http://www.epa.gov/grtlakes/toxteam/hgconf.htm

http://www.cnt.org/air/hg_sci.htm

http://www.cnt.org/air/hg_dose.htm

http://www.epri.com/EPRI_Journal/jan_feb_95_html/hg.html

http://atsdr1.atsdr.cdc.gov:8080/ToxProfiles/phs8916.html