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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:13.2pt;background:white"><b><font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black;font-weight:bold">EPA Seeks NAS Advice On How To Assess Chemicals'
Safer Alternatives <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:19.2pt;background:white"><b><font size="2" color="#949494" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#949494;font-weight:bold">Posted: September 25, 2013
<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:19.2pt;background:white"><b><font size="2" color="#949494" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#949494;font-weight:bold"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">At EPA's request, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is launching a panel to provide the agency with advice on how it can
better assess human health and/or ecological risks of alternatives to existing chemicals of concern, which could help the agency bolster its Design for the Environment program (DfE), which seeks to conduct such assessments.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">"We're going to be getting some advice from an NAS panel in the coming months about how we do these kinds of assessments," EPA
toxics chief Jim Jones told the Safer Consumer Products Summit in Washington, D.C. Sept. 18. "We are very excited about alternatives assessments that we do under DfE."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">But Paul Anastas, the agency's former research chief, is urging officials to devote more resources toward such green chemistry
approaches.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">The new NAS committee, "Design and Evaluation of Safer Chemical Substitutions -- A Framework to Inform Government and Industry
Decisions," whose members are provisionally appointed, is charged with "develop[ing] a decision framework for evaluating potential safer substitute chemicals as determined by human health and ecological risks," according to NAS' website.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">The NAS committee, which EPA is sponsoring, could help bolster the DfE program, which EPA officials and others have acknowledged
lacks utility under current law. Environmental and health groups strongly criticized the program in 2012 because
</span></font><font size="2" color="#990000" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#990000">EPA's draft analysis</span></font><font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">
of alternatives to the widely used chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) failed to interpret the toxicity data and downplayed the substances' potential endocrine disruption risks.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">The agency Sept. 24 unveiled an alternatives assessment of hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), a flame retardant chemical, that went
further than the BPA assessment, finding that the substance has "persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic characteristics." The agency also identifies a butadiene styrene brominated copolymer as being "anticipated to be safer" than HBCD.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">But in a statement announcing the HBCD alternatives assessment, Jones reiterated past concerns that the program has limited utility
by itself and that Congress should strengthen the agency's regulatory authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">"While EPA continues to support much needed reform of the [TSCA], EPA is taking steps now to address the public's concern with
certain flame retardant chemicals, including making information available to companies to help them make decisions on safer chemicals," said Jones said in a statement. "The conclusions in this report are enabling companies who choose to move away from HBCD
to do so with confidence that the potential for unintended consequences is minimized."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<b><font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black;font-weight:bold">DfE Process</span></font></b><font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">At the Safer Consumer Products Summit, Jones described DfE's approach to performing alternatives assessments, selecting chemicals
that are of interest to stakeholders, and might be considered chemicals of concern. Program staff then invite stakeholders' participation in providing and discussing information about the chemical and potential alternative chemicals.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">Jones, EPA's assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, described alternatives assessments
as a key component of his three-part strategy for managing chemicals that were on the market before TSCA was passed in 1976, and are more challenging for EPA to regulate because they are grandfathered from some requirements that apply to "new" chemicals.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">He called this "promoting basically safer chemistries" in his Sept. 18 remarks. "I really want to talk in particular around Design
for the Environment [DfE], a very exciting program and one that we're hoping we can take to a whole new level."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">Anastas, EPA's last confirmed assistant administrator for the Office of Research and Development, charged in his remarks at the
summit that DfE and other related programs receive too little funding compared with EPA's traditional regulatory role. Anastas, who resumed his position as the director of Yale's Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering last February after leaving
EPA, was a key proponent of green chemistry and sustainability policy while at the agency.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">"The traditional role of EPA is crucial, absolutely essential, must be strong and supported. And there's been a recognition at
EPA that it's profoundly not enough," Anastas said Sept. 18. "The question of whether to regulate or to facilitate is best answered by saying, 'Of course, the answer is both.' And how to move from that traditional, and still, make no mistake about it, still
the absolute core and the lion's share of all the attention of EPA is around that traditional role. When we talk about these brilliant programs like DfE and these other pollution prevention programs, make no mistake about it those are tremendously effective,
very valuable and dramatically under-resourced. And those need to be supported."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">The NAS committee's website says that it will "identify the scientific information and tools required by regulatory agencies and
industry to improve and increase consideration of potential health and environmental impacts early in the chemical design process. The decision framework will be capable of integrating multiple and diverse data streams to support early consideration of potential
health and environmental impacts as a part of fit-for-purpose decision making."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">The committee's framework will explain how alternatives' benefits, human health risks and ecological risks can be described, and
how the tradeoffs between these factors, "efficacy, process safety and resource use can be quantified."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">In addition to creating the report, the committee will also provide two examples of alternatives assessments to demonstrate how
the framework can be applied, according to the NAS website. The report indicates the committee's report "is expected to be issued in spring 2014."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">The committee membership is provisional, with NAS accepting comments on its proposed members. The provisional chairman is David
Dorman, a toxicology professor at North Carolina State University. Dorman was a member of the NAS committee that critically reviewed EPA's draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment of formaldehyde, including the now-famous chapter outlining
improvements it recommended EPA make to all IRIS assessments.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;background:white">
<font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">Other provisional members include Ivan Rusyn, a genomics research professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill who
served on the NAS formaldehyde review committee with Dorman, Joel Tickner, an associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Sustainability of the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Greg Paoli, a Canadian risk assessment consultant. Paoli
was a member of the NAS committee that in 2009 published the influential risk assessment report "Science and Decisions: Advancing Risk Assessment."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black">The committee held two conference calls last week, and its first meeting is scheduled for Oct. 10-11 in Washington,
D.C. -- <i><span style="font-style:italic">Maria Hegstad</span></i></span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" color="#000099" face="Times New Roman"><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Deborah L. DeBiasi</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><b><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy;font-weight:bold">Email: Deborah.DeBiasi@deq.virginia.gov</span></font></b><b><i><font size="2" color="red"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:red;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic"><br>
</span></font></i></b><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">WEB site address:
<a href="http://www.deq.virginia.gov/">www.deq.virginia.gov</a></span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Virginia Department of Environmental Quality</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Office of Water Permits
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Industrial Pretreatment/Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) Program</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">PPCPs, EDCs, and Microconstituents<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><a href="http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/PermittingCompliance/PollutionDischargeElimination/Microconstituents.aspx">http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/PermittingCompliance/PollutionDischargeElimination/Microconstituents.aspx</a></span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Mail: P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA 23218</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">Location: 629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA 23219</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:navy"><br>
</span></font><font size="2" color="navy"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:navy">PH: 804-698-4028 FAX: 804-698-4032<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" color="#000099" face="Times New Roman"><o:p> </o:p></font></p>
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