By Kacee Deener

EPA recently highlighted some of the Agency’s achievements during Gina McCarthy’s first 100 days as Administrator, noting that we have made significant strides towards improving the health of American families and protecting the environment across the country.

One of the seven highlighted examples is “Taking Action on Toxics and Chemical Safety” – which includes strengthening chemical assessments through changes to the Agency’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Program.  In a recent blog post, I described these changes and why they make sense for the IRIS Program, the Agency, and the American people.  But the IRIS Program hasn’t stopped there.  We’ve been moving forward implementing the changes.  Since August, we have:

1. Released early materials for several chemical assessments.  These materials highlight our thought process for determining which studies are most important for the assessment, help make sure we didn’t miss any important research, and help identify potential scientific controversies early on.
2. Scheduled the first IRIS public bimonthly meeting (Dec. 12-13).  At this meeting we will discuss the early materials for three chemicals (ETBE, tert-butanol, and RDX) and the draft assessments and peer review charges for two chemical assessments (ethylene oxide and benzo[a]pyrene).
3. Held a public scientific workshop to discuss the IRIS assessment of hexavalent chromium.  An important component of determining the cancer causing potential of ingested hexavalent chromium is understanding the rates at which this metal is effectively detoxified in the gastrointestinal tract.  EPA convened an expert panel to discuss this issue in September; more than 200 stakeholders participated!
4. Scheduled a scientific workshop on mouse lung tumors.  At this workshop, which will be held in early 2014, experts will discuss the available data from studies of mouse lung tumors following exposure to chemicals and discuss the relevance of these tumors in mice to assessing human cancer risk.
5. Released final IRIS assessments for biphenyl, 1,4-dioxane (inhalation update), and methanol (noncancer). These final assessments provide information on the health effects of these chemicals and toxicity values that risk assessors can use (along with exposure and other information) to make decisions to protect public health.
6. Announced a workshop on formaldehyde.  This workshop, which will be held in spring 2014, will focus on several scientific issues pertinent to assessing the potential health effects of inhaled formaldehyde.  We’re taking input on speakers/panelists and topics for three theme areas – you can send us your suggestions here.

I think you’ll agree we’ve been making tremendous progress!  These activities illustrate our commitment to scientific integrity, public input, and transparency as we work together to produce the highest quality scientific assessments to inform decisions to protect public health.

About the Author: Kacee Deener is the Communications Director in EPA’s National Center for Environmental Assessment, home of the IRIS Program.  She joined EPA 12 years ago and has a Masters degree in Public Health.