[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 128 (Tuesday, July 6, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36353-36354]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-17005]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[OPP-00612; FRL-6090-4]


FIFRA Scientific Advisory Panel; Open Meeting

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of open meeting.

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SUMMARY: There will be a 4-day meeting of the Federal Insecticide, 
Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and Food Quality Protection Act 
(FQPA) Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) to review a set of scientific 
issues being considered by the Agency in connection with Burkholderia 
cepacia: risk assessment of a biopesticide and possible human 
opportunistic pathogen; a consultation on protocol design to assess 
acute neurotoxicity following oral administration of pesticides; issues 
pertaining to the assessment of exposure to pesticides in residential 
and other non-occupational settings; higher tier ecological risk 
assessment for chlorfenapyr; and pesticide spray drift--review of 
proposed pesticide deposition curves. The meeting is open to the 
public. Seating at the meeting will be on a first-come basis. 
Individuals requiring special accommodations at this meeting, including 
wheelchair access, should contact either Larry Dorsey or Paul Lewis at 
the address listed under ``FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT'' at least 5 
business days prior to the meeting so that appropriate arrangements can 
be made.

DATES: The meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 20; Wednesday, July 
21; Thursday, July 22; and Friday, July 23, 1999, from 8:30 a.m. to 
5:30 p.m.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at: Sheraton Crystal City Hotel, 
1800 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA. The telephone number for 
the hotel is: (703) 486-1111.
    By mail, submit written comments (one original and 40 copies) to: 
The Public Information and Records Integrity Branch (7502C), Office of 
Pesticide Programs, Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M St., SW., 
Washington, DC 20460. In person or by delivery service, bring comments 
to: Rm. 119, Crystal Mall #2, 1921 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, 
VA 22202; telephone: (703) 305-5805.
    Comments and data also may be submitted electronically by sending 
electronic mail (e-mail) to: [email protected]. No Confidential 
Business Information (CBI) should be submitted through e-mail. 
Additional information on electronic submissions can be found under 
Unit V. of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: By mail: Larry C. Dorsey or Paul I. 
Lewis, Designated Federal Officials, FIFRA Scientific Advisory Panel 
(7101C), Office of Pesticide Programs, Environmental Protection Agency, 
401 M St., SW., Washington, DC 20460; Office location: Rm. 117T, CM #2, 
1921 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA; telephone: (703) 305-5369; 
e-mail: [email protected] or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Purpose of the Meeting

    This SAP meeting includes five distinct sessions. The first session 
will be the review of a risk assessment of a biopesticide and possible 
human opportunistic pathogen. Some microorganisms used for controlling 
pests may be opportunistic human pathogens, or closely related to 
opportunistic pathogens. Opportunistic pathogens are microbes that are 
capable of causing disease only in people who are immunocompromized or 
are otherwise especially susceptible. A critical issue concerns the 
pathogenic strains proposed for registration as biopesticides, since 
these strains are typically isolated from the environment, for example 
agricultural fields, rather than as clinical specimens. As such, these 
strains have no history of actually causing disease and may not be able 
to do so. Criteria for relatedness between clinical strains and 
biocontrol strains and the ability to predict pathogenicity of the 
biocontrol strains is therefore vital.
    The Agency requests the SAP to address the sufficiency of current 
tests used to consider the risk from opportunistic pathogens to 
immunocompromized populations. Burkholderia cepacia, a biopesticide 
which may cause fatal infections with cystic fibrosis and chronic 
granulomatous disease, will be used as a test case to examine the 
adequacy of animal models, taxonomic criteria, and criteria using known 
virulence genes as predictors of the pathogenic potential of individual 
strains, as well as issues related to the importance of levels of 
exposure and the nature of susceptible populations.
    The second session will be a consultation on a study protocol 
design to assess acute neurotoxicity studies following oral 
administration of pesticides. Recently, several acute neurotoxicity 
studies have been submitted to the Agency employing this protocol 
design. This novel design deviates from the standard Agency acute 
developmental neurotoxicity protocols. The primary difference is that 
the test substance is administered in the diet compared to being 
administered as a bolus dose in the standard Agency study design. The 
purpose of this session is to consult with the SAP regarding issues 
pertaining to this new design.
    The third session will be a review of issues pertaining to the 
assessment of exposure to pesticides in residential and other non-
occupational settings. When estimating aggregate exposure to a 
pesticide substance, the Agency includes exposures that may occur 
following use of the pesticide in residential or other non-occupational 
settings. This session will focus on several key issues that pertain to 
improving procedures for estimating exposure to pesticides from use in 
residential or other non-occupational settings and in revising its 
standard operating procedures for residential exposure assessments. The 
issues include: (1) Calculating percent dislodgeability of available 
pesticide residues from lawns, indoor surfaces, and pets; (2) use of 
choreographed activities as surrogates for estimating children's dermal 
exposure; (3) characterizing hand (or object)-to-mouth activities; (4) 
calculating exposure to pesticides that may result from track-in, 
drift, bathing or showering; and (5) calculating exposure from use of 
pesticides in schools, day-care centers, and other public places.
    The fourth session concerns the review of the Agency's chlorfenapyr 
ecological risk assessment. In December, 1994, the Agency received a 
request for registration for the use of the pyrrole insecticide 
chlorfenapyr on cotton. The Agency is seeking SAP input regarding the 
use of available data to characterize the risk of chlorfenapyr use on 
cotton to birds in cotton agroenvironments. The Agency requests SAP 
comments on its assessment of avian risks and is seeking

[[Page 36354]]

SAP suggestions for how the Agency might use probabilistic risk 
assessment techniques to improve its risk assessment. Specifically, the 
Agency is seeking guidance on the geographic scale of a probabilistic 
risk assessment. The SAP will be queried on what data on chlorfenapyr 
fate, residues, effects and cotton agroenvironments would be necessary 
to accommodate extrapolations of risks to scales beyond the treated 
agroenvironment to much larger scales.
    The final session will be a review of pesticide spray drift data 
from ground hydraulic and orchard air blast applications. The purpose 
of this session is to examine the validity of an approach developed to 
place bounds on the Spray Drift Task Force data for ground hydraulic 
boom and orchard air blast spraying applications. Curves developed from 
bounds are intended to be used in environmental exposure assessments to 
estimate deposition over a range of distances, replacing the use of a 
fixed estimate. The proposed bounding method is intended to be 
adaptable to allow the addition of data from new or existing 
application methods.

II. Availability of Review Materials

    A meeting agenda is currently available, and copies of EPA 
background documents for the meeting will be available no later than 
July 6, 1999. The meeting agenda and EPA primary background documents 
will be available on the EPA web site -- http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/
SAP/ or may be obtained by contacting the Public Information and 
Records Integrity Branch, Information Resources and Services Division 
(7502C), Office of Pesticide Programs, Environmental Protection Agency, 
401 M St., SW., Washington, DC 20460; Office location: Rm. 119, CM #2, 
1921 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA; telephone: (703) 305-5805.

III. Written Comments and Oral Presentations at the Meeting

    Members of the public wishing to submit comments should contact 
either Larry Dorsey or Paul Lewis at the address or the telephone 
number given under ``FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT'' to confirm that 
the meeting date and the agenda have not been modified or changed. 
Interested persons are permitted to file written statements before the 
meeting. To the extent that time permits and upon advanced written 
request to either Larry Dorsey or Paul Lewis, interested persons may be 
permitted by the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Panel to present oral 
statements at the meeting. The request should identify the name of the 
individual making the presentation, the organization (if any) the 
individual will represent, and any requirements for audiovisual 
equipment (e.g., overhead projector, 35 mm projector, chalkboard, etc). 
There is no limit on the length of written comments for consideration 
by the Panel, but oral statements before the Panel are limited to 
approximately 5 minutes. The Agency also urges the public to submit 
written comments in lieu of oral presentations. Persons wishing to make 
oral and/or written statements should notify either Larry Dorsey or 
Paul Lewis and submit 40 copies of the summary information. The Agency 
encourages that written statements be submitted before the meeting to 
provide Panel Members the time necessary to consider and review the 
comments.

IV. Panel Report

    Copies of the Panel's report of their recommendations will be 
available approximately 30 working days after the meeting and may be 
obtained by contacting the Public Information and Records Integrity 
Branch at the address or telephone number listed in ``ADDRESSES'' at 
the beginning of this document.

V. Public Docket and Submission of Electronic Comments

    A public record has been established for this notice under docket 
control number ``OPP-00612'' (including comments and data submitted 
electronically). A public version of this record, including printed 
versions of electronic comments, which does not include information 
claimed as CBI, is available for inspection from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., 
Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The public record is 
located in Rm. 119 of the Public Information and Records Integrity 
Branch at the address listed in ``ADDRESSES'' at the beginning of this 
document.
    Electronic comments must be submitted as an ASCII file avoiding the 
use of special characters and any form of encryption. Comments and data 
also will be accepted on disks in WordPerfect in 5.1/6/7/8.0 file 
format or ASCII file format. All comments and data in electronic form 
must be identified by the docket control number ``OPP-00612.'' 
Electronic comments may be filed online at many Federal Depository 
Libraries.
    The official record for this notice, as well as the public version 
described above, will be kept in paper form. Accordingly, EPA will 
transfer all comments received electronically into printed, paper form 
as they are received and will place the paper copies in the official 
record which will also include all comments submitted directly in 
writing. The official record is the paper record maintained at the 
address in ``ADDRESSES'' at the beginning of this document.
    Information submitted as a comment in response to this notice may 
be claimed confidential by marking any part or all of that information 
as CBI. Information marked CBI will not be disclosed except in 
accordance with procedures set forth in 40 CFR part 2. An edited copy 
of the comment that does not contain the CBI material must be submitted 
for inclusion in the public docket. Information not marked confidential 
will be included in the public docket. All comments and materials 
received will be made part of the public record and will be considered 
by the Panel.

List of Subjects

    Environmental protection.

    Dated: June 29, 1999.

Marcia E. Mulkey,

Director, Office of Pesticide Programs.

[FR Doc. 99-17005 Filed 7-2-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-F