[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 167 (Wednesday, August 28, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53138-53139]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-20913]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-9900-46-ORD; Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2006-0756]
Notice of Extension of Public Comment Period on the Draft IRIS
Carcinogenicity Assessment for Ethylene Oxide and Addition of Ethylene
Oxide to October IRIS Bimonthly Meeting Agenda
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of Extension of Public Comment Period to October 11,
2013, and Addition of Ethylene Oxide to October IRIS Bimonthly Meeting
Agenda.
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SUMMARY: EPA is announcing an extension of the public comment period
for the IRIS external review draft carcinogenicity assessment titled,
``Evaluation of the Inhalation Carcinogenicity of Ethylene Oxide''
(EPA/635/R-13/128a and EPA/635/R-13/128b) and the draft peer review
charge questions. The original Federal Register notice announcing the
public comment period was published on July 23, 2013. We are extending
the deadline for this public comment period from September 5, 2013, to
October 11, 2013, at the request of the American Chemistry Council and
the Ethylene Oxide Sterilization Association, Inc. The draft assessment
was prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA)
within the EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD). This draft
assessment is not final as described in EPA's information quality
guidelines, and it does not represent and should not be construed to
represent Agency policy or views.
Discussion of the draft IRIS carcinogenicity assessment for
ethylene oxide will be included on the agenda of the IRIS bimonthly
public meeting to be held on October 23-24, 2013, at EPA offices in
Arlington, Virginia. Information on this meeting, including meeting
location, time, registration, and participation procedures will be
available at the IRIS Web site (http://www.epa.gov/iris/publicmeeting/
).
DATES: The public comment period began on July 23, 2013, and is being
extended to end on October 11, 2013. Comments should be in writing and
must be received by EPA by October 11, 2013.
ADDRESSES: The draft ``Evaluation of the Inhalation Carcinogenicity of
Ethylene Oxide'' is available primarily via the Internet on the NCEA
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 Information Management Team, NCEA; telephone: 703-347-8561;
facsimile: 703-347-8691. If you request a paper copy, please provide
your name, mailing address, and the document title. Comments may be
submitted electronically via http://www.regulations.gov, by email, 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 federal docket,
contact the Office of Environmental Information Docket; telephone: 202-
566-1752; facsimile: 202-566-9744; or email: [email protected]. For
information on the IRIS bimonthly public meeting, contact Christine
Ross, IRIS Staff, National Center for Environmental Assessment,
(8601P), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue
NW., Washington, DC 20460; telephone: 703-347-8592; facsimile: 703-347-
8689; or email: [email protected]. If you have questions about the
document, contact Jennifer Jinot, National Center for Environmental
Assessment; telephone: 703-347-8597; facsimile: 703-347-8690; or email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
[[Page 53139]]
I. Information About IRIS
EPA's IRIS Program is a human health assessment program that
evaluates quantitative and qualitative risk information on effects that
may result from exposure to chemical substances found in the
environment. Through the IRIS Program, EPA provides the highest quality
science-based human health assessments to support the Agency's
regulatory activities and decisions to protect public health. The IRIS
database contains information for more than 500 chemical substances
that can be used to support the first two steps (hazard identification
and dose-response evaluation) of the human health risk assessment
process. When supported by available data, IRIS provides health effects
information and toxicity values for health effects (including cancer
and effects other than cancer). Government and others combine IRIS
toxicity values with exposure information to characterize public health
risks of chemical substances; this information is then used to support
risk management decisions designed to protect public health.
II. Extension of Comment Period
The EPA is extending the deadline for submitting comments on the
draft ``Evaluation of the Inhalation Carcinogenicity of Ethylene
Oxide'' and on the draft peer review charge questions to October 11,
2013. The original deadline for comments was September 5, 2013. The
EPA's decision responds to requests to extend the comment deadline. The
EPA believes that this extension will assist in providing an adequate
amount of additional time for the public to review the drafts and to
provide written comments.
III. Bimonthly Public Meeting
In addition to the extension to the public comment period announced
in this notice, the draft assessment will be discussed at the first
IRIS bimonthly public meeting scheduled for October 23-24, 2013.
Information on this meeting, including meeting location, time,
registration, and participation procedures will be available at the
IRIS Web site (http://www.epa.gov/iris/publicmeeting/). The purpose of
the IRIS public meeting is to allow all interested parties to present
scientific and technical comments on the draft IRIS health assessment
and charge questions to EPA and other interested parties attending the
meeting.
IV. Peer Review
In addition to this public comment period, the draft assessment
will be reviewed by the EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) Chemical
Assessment Advisory Committee (CAAC) for peer review. The EPA SAB is a
body established under the Federal Advisory Committee Act with a broad
mandate to advise the Agency on scientific matters. The public comment
period and bimonthly public meeting announced in this notice are
separate processes from the SAB/CAAC peer review. The SAB will schedule
one or more public peer-review meetings which will be announced in a
separate Federal Register Notice at a later date.
V. How To Submit Technical Comments to the Docket at http://www.regulations.gov
Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2006-
0756 by one of the following methods:
http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line
instructions for submitting comments.
Email: [email protected].
Fax: 202-566-9744.
Mail: Office of Environmental Information (OEI) Docket
(Mail Code: 28221T), 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 3334, 1301
Constitution Ave. NW., Washington, DC. The EPA Docket Center's 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. 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 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 index, number pages consecutively with the
comments, and submit an unbound original and three copies.
Instructions for submitting comments to the EPA Docket: 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 http://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 http://www.regulations.gov or email. 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 email comment
directly to EPA without going through http://www.regulations.gov; your
email 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 http://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
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. 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: August 19, 2013.
Lynn Flowers,
Acting Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. 2013-20913 Filed 8-27-13; 8:45 am]
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