[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 184 (Friday, September 22, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55470-55471]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-8054]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-8221-8; Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2006-0756]
Evaluation of the Carcinogenicity of Ethylene Oxide
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of public comment period.
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SUMMARY: EPA is announcing a 30-day public comment period for the draft
document titled, ``Evaluation of the Carcinogenicity of Ethylene
Oxide'' (EPA/635/R-06/003). The document was prepared by the National
Center for Environmental Assessment within EPA's Office of Research and
Development.
EPA is releasing this draft document solely for the purpose of
seeking public comment and for review by the EPA Science Advisory Board
(SAB) via a meeting to be held later in 2006 (time and place to be
specified in a separate Federal Register notice). This document has not
been formally disseminated by EPA. It does not represent and should not
be construed to represent any Agency policy or determination. EPA will
consider any public comments submitted in accordance with this notice
when revising the document.
DATES: The 30-day public comment period begins September 22, 2006, and
ends October 23, 2006. Technical comments should be in writing and must
be received by EPA by October 23, 2006.
ADDRESSES: The draft ``Evaluation of the Carcinogenicity of Ethylene
Oxide'' is available primarily via the Internet on the National Center
for Environmental Assessment's home page under the Recent Additions and
the Data 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, your mailing
address, and the document title, ``Evaluation of the Carcinogenicity of
Ethylene Oxide.'' Please provide your name, your mailing address, the
title, and the EPA number of the requested publication.
Comments may be submitted electronically via www.regulations.gov,
by mail, by facsimile, or by hand delivery/courier. Please follow the
detailed instructions provided in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section
of this notice.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on the public comment
period, contact the Office of Environmental Information Docket;
telephone: 202-566-1752; facsimile: 202-566-1753; or e-mail:
[email protected].
For technical information, contact Henry D. Kahn, D.Sc., NCEA;
telephone: 202-564-3269; facsimile: 202-565-0079; or e-mail:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Information About the Project/Document
Ethylene oxide (EtO) is a gas at room temperature. It is
manufactured from ethylene and used primarily as a chemical
intermediate in the manufacture of ethylene glycol. It is also used as
a sterilizing agent for medical equipment and as a fumigating agent for
spices. The largest sources of human exposure are in occupations
involving contact with the gas in production facilities and in
hospitals that sterilize medical equipment. EtO can also be inhaled by
residents living near production or sterilizing/fumigating facilities.
This draft assessment document characterizes the potential for a
carcinogenic health hazard from human inhalation exposure to EtO. This
is accomplished by a weight-of-evidence evaluation as to how likely EtO
is to be a human carcinogen, as well as an evaluation of related dose-
response information which leads to the development of lifetime cancer
risk estimates per unit of exposure. This assessment, when finalized,
will be posted to EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)
database. The document was prepared by EPA's National Center for
Environmental Assessment (NCEA). EPA last published a health assessment
of the potential carcinogenicity of EtO in 1985 (U.S. EPA, 1985).
The current assessment reviews the more recently developed database
on the carcinogenicity of EtO, pertinent data from the 1985 assessment,
and several reviews and assessments issued by other organizations
(IARC, 1994; Health Canada, 2001; CalEPA, 1999; EOIC, 2001).
II. How To Submit Technical Comments to the Docket at
www.regulations.gov
Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD 2006-
0756 by one of the following methods:
www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for
submitting comments.
E-mail: [email protected].
Fax: 202-566-1753
Mail: Office of Environmental Information (OEI) 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: The OEI Docket is located in the EPA
Headquarters Docket Center, 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. 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 submit comments by mail or hand delivery, please submit one
unbound original with pages numbered consecutively, and three copies of
the comments. For attachments, provide an
[[Page 55471]]
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-
2006-0756. Please ensure that your comments are submitted within the
specified comment period. Comments received after the closing date will
be marked ``late,'' and may only be considered if time permits. It is
EPA's policy to include all comments it receives in the public docket
without change and to make the comments available online at
www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided,
unless a 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 www.regulations.gov or e-mail.
The 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 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
homepage at www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
Docket: Documents in the docket are listed in the
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. Certain other materials,
such as copyrighted material, are publicly available only in hard copy.
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically
in www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the OEI Docket in the EPA
Headquarters Docket Center.
Dated: September 15, 2006.
George W. Alapas,
Acting Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. 06-8054 Filed 9-21-06; 8:45 am]
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