CINCINNATI, Ohio, January 24, 2006 / -- TERA (Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment) has tentatively scheduled a Voluntary Children's Chemical Evaluation Program (VCCEP) peer consultation meeting on benzene for Thursday and Friday, June 15 and 16, 2006. The meeting will be held at the Northern Kentucky University METS Center located near the Greater Cincinnati International Airport. The public is invited to attend and to provide written and/or oral comments. The meeting will also be available to registered off-site observers in real time via a webcast. More information regarding the meeting logistics, registration for attending the meeting or observing the webcast, and procedures for submitting comments will be provided soon on TERA's web page at http://www.tera.org/peer/VCCEP/benzene/benzeneWelcome.html.

Interested parties and the general public are encouraged to nominate qualified expert scientists as candidates to be considered for the benzene peer consultation panel. The nomination period will remain open until Friday, February 17, 2006. TERA will consider all candidates and will independently select the panel members. When nominating candidates, please follow the procedure described on TERA's Nomination and Selection Policy for VCCEP Peer Consultation Panels web page.

Background
The goal of VCCEP is to enable the public to better understand the potential health risks to children associated with certain chemical exposures. Companies volunteered to collect or develop health effects and exposure information on 20 chemicals and then to integrate that information into risk and "data needs" assessments. The assessments are evaluated by a group of scientific experts using a peer consultation process, which is organized and operated by TERA. Panels include experts in toxicity testing, exposure evaluation, and risk assessment. More information about VCCEP is available at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's web site at http://www.epa.gov/chemrtk/childhlt.htm.

TERA's VCCEP responsibilities include selecting panel members, convening and chairing meetings to evaluate sponsors' submissions, and preparing reports of the meetings. Information on policies and procedures, updated schedules, and meeting reports are available on TERA's web page.

TERA Contact: Dan Briggs, telephone 513-542-7475, ext 21; e-mail briggs@tera.org