[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 49 (Tuesday, March 14, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13125-13126]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-2436]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-8044-6; Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2006-0134]
A Framework for Assessing Health Risks of Environmental Exposures
to Children
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.
ACTION: Notice of public comment period.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a
45-day public comment period for the external review draft document
titled, ``A Framework for Assessing Health Risks of Environmental
Exposures to Children'' (EPA/600/R-05/093A). The draft document was
prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA)
within EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD).
For external scientific peer review, EPA has hired Eastern Research
Group, Inc. (ERG) to convene an independent panel of experts and
organize and conduct an external peer-review workshop. The date and
location for the external peer-review workshop will be announced in a
separate Federal Register notice, once that information is obtained by
EPA. The public comment period and the external peer-review workshop
are separate processes that provide opportunities for all interested
parties to comment on the document. In addition to consideration by
EPA, all public comments submitted in accordance with this notice will
also be forwarded to ERG for the external peer-review panel prior to
the workshop.
EPA is releasing this external review draft document solely for the
purpose of pre-dissemination peer review under applicable information
quality guidelines. This draft document has not been formally
disseminated by EPA. It does not represent and should not be construed
to represent any Agency policy or determination.
DATES: The 45-day public comment period begins March 14, 2006, and ends
April 28, 2006. Technical comments should be in writing and must be
received by EPA by April 28, 2006.
ADDRESSES: The draft document and EPA's peer-review charge are
available primarily via the Internet on the National Center for
Environmental Assessment's home page under the Recent Additions and
Publications menus at http://www.epa.gov/ncea. A limited number of
paper copies are available from the Technical Information Staff, NCEA-
W; telephone: 202-564-3261; facsimile: 202-565-0050. If you are
requesting a paper copy, please provide your name, mailing address, and
the document title, ``A Framework for Assessing Health Risks of
Environmental Exposures to Children'' (EPA/600/R-05/093A).
Comments may be submitted electronically via http://www.regulations.gov, by mail, by facsimile, or by hand delivery/
courier. Please follow the detailed instructions
[[Page 13126]]
as provided in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this notice.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on the public comment
period, contact the OEI Docket; telephone: 202-566-1752; facsimile:
202-566-1753; or e-mail: [email protected].
If you have questions about the document, please contact the
Technical Information Staff, National Center for Environmental
Assessment, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC 20460;
telephone: 202-564-3261; facsimile: 202-565-0050; or e-mail:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Information About the Document
Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in the
recognition of, and public health concern for, the vulnerability of
children to exposure to environmental agents. Children have unusual
patterns of exposure and have vulnerabilities to chemical agents that
are quite distinct from those of adults, and thus require special
consideration in risk assessment. Children often have
disproportionately higher exposures to certain environmental toxicants
because, pound-for-pound of body weight, children have higher food and
water intake and breathe more air than adults. Metabolic pathways in
the young, especially in the first few months after birth, are
immature, and the ability to detoxify environmental agents is different
from that of adults. In addition, behavior and activity patterns of
children often magnify their exposures. These factors imply that
children are likely to have more substantial exposures than adults to
certain environmental agents. This document attempts to organize and
present current knowledge and practices in a programmatic framework for
assessing human health risks from exposures to environmental agents
from prior to conception through adolescence. It describes this
framework within the current Agency risk assessment paradigm, and
includes problem formulation, analysis and risk characterization as
discrete steps in the process. Moreover, this document focuses on mode
of action as a context for considering the toxicokinetic and
toxicodynamic differences between children and adults, and considers
approaches for risk assessment in the context of uncertainty and
variability in exposure and critical windows of development.
II. How To Submit Technical Comments to the Docket
Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2006-
0134, by one of the following methods:
http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line
instructions for submitting comments.
E-mail: [email protected].
Fax: 202-566-1753.
Mail: Office of Environmental Information Docket (Mail
Code: 2822T), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania
Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460. The phone number is 202-566-1752.
Hand delivery/courier: The Office of Environmental
Information (OEI) Docket is located in the Headquarters EPA Docket
Center (EPA/DC), EPA West Building, Room B102, 1301 Constitution Ave.,
NW., Washington, DC. The EPA Docket Center Public Reading Room is open
from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal
holidays. The telephone number for the Public Reading Room is 202-566-
1744, and the telephone number for the OEI Docket is 202-566-1752;
facsimile: 202-566-1753; or e-mail: [email protected]. Such deliveries
are only accepted during the Docket's normal hours of operation, and
special arrangements should be made for deliveries of boxed
information.
If you provide technical comments by mail or hand delivery/courier,
please submit one unbound original with pages numbered consecutively,
and three copies of the comments. For attachments, provide an index,
number pages consecutively with the comments, and submit an unbound
original and three copies.
Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-
2006-0134. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included
in the public docket without change and may be made available online at
http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information
provided, unless the comment includes information claimed to be
Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose
disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you
consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The http://www.regulations.gov Web site
is an ``anonymous access'' system, which means EPA will not know your
identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of
your comment. If you send an e-mail comment directly to EPA without
going through http://www.regulations.gov, your e-mail address will be
automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is
placed in the public docket and made available on the Internet. If you
submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include your name
and other contact information in the body of your comment and with any
disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to
technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA
may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid
the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of
any defects or viruses. For additional information about EPA's public
docket, visit the EPA Docket Center home page at http://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute in the EPA Headquarters
Docket Center. Certain other material, such as copyrighted material,
will be publicly available only in hard copy. Publicly available docket
materials are available either electronically in http://www.regulations.gov, or in hard copy at the OEI Docket in the EPA
Headquarters Docket Center.
Dated: March 7, 2006.
George W. Alapas,
Acting Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. 06-2436 Filed 3-13-06; 8:45 am]
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