EPA Accepting Comments on Implementation Process
For Cancer Risk Assessment Guidelines

A RiskWorld news brief

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting written comments from the public until March 27, 1998, on its current implementation process for reassessing cancer assessments as part of its initiative for implementing the Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment (the guidelines).

The implementation process previously received public comment at a stakeholders meeting sponsored by EPA’s Science Policy Council on February 24 and 25, 1998, in Arlington, Virginia. Around 60 persons, including some 20 EPA representatives, attended the meeting.

EPA had published a notice about the meeting in the Federal Register (Volume 63, Number 18, Page 4252) and had notified more than 200 external stakeholders about the meeting, including industry, environmental groups, environmental justice groups, and states, as well as anyone who had responded to previous Federal Register notices about the implementation process or the guidelines.

Stakeholders who could not attend the meeting, however, can present their views in writing during the 30-day extension that ends March 27.

In 1996, EPA proposed both the guidelines (Federal Register, Volume 61, Number 79, Page 17960), which were developed under the auspices of EPA’s Risk Assessment Forum, and an implementation process for reassessing cancer assessments (Federal Register, Volume 61, Number 123, Page 32799).

The main discussion document containing the proposed implementation process is located on the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/ncea/rafpub.htm. The implementation process will help the EPA and the public select and prioritize chemicals that will need reassessment when the revised guidelines become final and also will allow the selection of new assessments to be incorporated into the reassessment schedule. According to the projected time line included in the document, the implementation process will begin in July of each year and occur on an annual basis, starting in 1998.

EPA will revise its proposed implementation process based on public comments and is seeking opinion on the following issues:

1. the implementation process, including opportunities for public input,
2. the criteria for selection of chemicals for reassessment,
3. the feasibility of making small changes in toxicity assessments without completely reassessing all toxicity information, and
4. the form of external review for identification and prioritization of chemicals.

After March 27, EPA will use the comments to finalize the implementation process once the guidelines are final.

To submit short written comments* on the implementation process or for technical inquiries, contact:

Alana Knaster
The Mediation Institute
4508 Park Cordero
Calabasas, California 91302

Telephone (818) 591-9526, fax (818) 591-0980.

*Comments will be placed in a public administrative record and should not include personal information such as medical data or home addresses, confidential business information, or information protected by copyright. Due to limited time and resources, acknowledgments will not be sent.

Related Links

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov/

Federal Register Online via GPO Access - Search the database for the 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998 Federal Register (Volumes 60 through 63).
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces140.html

Posted March 13, 1998.

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