[Pharmwaste] EPA Lists Chemicals For EDSP Screening

DeBiasi, Deborah (DEQ) Deborah.DeBiasi at deq.virginia.gov
Thu Nov 29 10:13:20 EST 2012


EPA Lists Chemicals For EDSP Screening
Posted: November 28, 2012
EPA has released the list of roughly 10,000 chemicals that it anticipates will eventually undergo screening for potential developmental risks as part of its Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP), following repeated calls from the agency's Inspector General (IG) seeking such a list.
The list and accompanying white paper<http://insideepa.com/iwpfile.html?file=nov2012%2Fepa2012_2164.pdf> follow requests from the IG last year that EPA estimate the number of chemicals that should undergo EDSP screening, in order to better manage the long-stalled and often controversial program. Congress mandated EPA create such a program in the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act, but it was not until 2009 that EPA issued the first test orders to chemicals to undergo EDSP screening.
The list and white paper represent an early step in the "EDSP Comprehensive Management Plan" the agency released last summer<http://insideepa.com/201207032403534/EPA-Daily-News/Daily-News/epa-plans-to-issue-endocrine-test-orders-for-water-contaminants-in-fy2013/menu-id-95.html>, where it indicated that it would issue in fiscal year 2013 its long-delayed list of drinking water contaminants it plans to test. The list of chemicals are to be addressed during the five-year time frame of the EDSP management plan. EPA drafted the plan in response to critical IG reports last year. A May 2011 IG report faulted the agency for taking longer than a decade to create the screening program and blamed part of the program's delays on mismanagement, arguing that there was no management plan for the program's operation.
In a follow-up report, the agency watchdog said last December that it needed "additional information and clarification" on agency plans to define the possible universe of chemicals that could be considered for screening in EDSP. The IG also sought agency plans to describe how it will prioritize chemicals to be included in the EDSP in the future.
EPA's list contains roughly 10,000 chemicals gleaned from its Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) and Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) authorities. EPA estimates there are roughly 5,000 pesticide ingredients, 90 SDWA regulated contaminants and 6,000 chemicals that are currently unregulated under SDWA but may be drinking water contaminants -- all of which could be considered for EDSP screening.
EPA's new white paper explains that "the agency plans to develop a prioritization scheme built on the broader, general concept articulated in the National Academy of Sciences Toxicity Testing in the Twenty-first Century: A Vision and a Strategy, which speaks to the need to integrate all existing knowledge and multiple tools to generate a more practical, scientifically-based prioritized list of chemicals for EDSP screening. These prioritization tools include the consideration of physicochemical properties (e.g., exclusions of polymers, strong acids and bases, reactive and unstable compounds, undefined chemicals like coconut, oils and kaolin, etc.), structure activity relationship and high-throughput computational methods."
The agency announced earlier this month<http://insideepa.com/201211212416914/EPA-Daily-News/Daily-News/epa-readies-sap-to-study-comptox-tools-for-prioritizing-edsp-chemicals/menu-id-95.html> that its Science Advisory Panel (SAP) will meet in Arlington, VA, Jan. 29 - Feb. 1 to review the agency's prioritization plan for chemicals to undergo EDSP screening. The plan, according to the Nov. 16 Federal Register notice, aims to use computational methods such as high-throughput screening and modeling to help "focus the generation of new data on chemicals that are more likely to have the potential to interact with the estrogen, androgen, or thyroid pathways."
The new white paper provides the "'validation principles' that the agency will use in the development and implementation of a chemical prioritization approach based on computational toxicology tools," for prioritizing the 10,000 chemicals for EDSP screening. EPA explains that its validation approach is based on one published by the international Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development several years ago. The process is intended to result in a prioritization tool that has "a defined endpoint, an unambiguous algorithm, a defined domain of applicability an appropriate measures of goodness-of-fit, robustness and predictivity and a mechanistic interpretation."



Deborah L. DeBiasi
Email:   Deborah.DeBiasi at deq.virginia.gov
WEB site address:  www.deq.virginia.gov<http://www.deq.virginia.gov/>
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Office of Water Permit and Compliance Assistance Programs
Industrial Pretreatment/Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) Program
PPCPs, EDCs, and Microconstituents  http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/PermittingCompliance/PollutionDischargeElimination/Microconstituents.aspx
Mail:          P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA  23218
Location:  629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA  23219
PH:         804-698-4028      FAX:      804-698-4032

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