[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 155 (Friday, August 10, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42217-42218]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-20128]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-7029-7]


Technical Workshop on the Draft Framework for Cumulative Risk 
Assessment

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a 
meeting, organized and convened by Versar, Inc., a contractor to EPA's 
Risk Assessment Forum, for external scientific peer consultation on the 
draft Framework for Cumulative Risk Assessment. The meeting is being 
held to discuss technical issues associated with cumulative risk 
assessment and how to capture these issues in a broad, flexible 
framework that will inform future guidance development efforts in this 
area. Meeting participants, invited by Versar, Inc., will be drawn from 
academia, industry, consulting, environmental and community groups and 
will provide expertise in areas such as aggregate and cumulative 
exposure, chemical mixtures, socioeconomic vulnerability, as well as 
public health assessment and uncertainty analysis.

DATES: The meeting will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, 
August 22, 2001, and from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday, August 23, 
2001. Members of the public may attend as observers, and there will be 
a limited time for comments from the public. Comments should be in 
writing and must be postmarked by September 10, 2001.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at the Marriott Crystal Gateway 
Hotel, Arlington, VA. Versar, Inc., an EPA contractor, will convene and 
facilitate the workshop. To register to attend the workshop as an 
observer, visit www.versar.com/epa/cumriskmtg.htm, or contact Ann 
Cyrus, Versar, Inc.; telephone: (703) 750-3000 extension 274; 
facsimile: 703-642-6954; email [email protected] by 5 p.m. eastern 
daylight time, August 17, 2001. Space is limited, and reservations will 
be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. There will be a 
limited time for comments from the public during the workshop. Please 
let Versar know if you wish to make comments, and provide Versar with 
one written copy of comments prior to the start of the meeting.
    The draft Framework for Cumulative Risk Assessment is available 
primarily via the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/ncea/raf/rafpub.htm. A 
limited number of paper copies are available from the Technical 
Information Staff (8623D), 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, draft Framework for 
Cumulative Risk Assessment. Copies are not available from Versar. 
Comments may be mailed to the Technical Information Staff (8623D), 
NCEA-W, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, 
NW., Washington, DC 20460, or delivered to the Technical Information 
Staff at 808 17th Street, NW., 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20006; 
telephone: 202-564-3261; facsimile: 202-565-0050. Comments should be in 
writing and please submit one unbound original with pages numbered 
consecutively, and two copies of the comments. For attachments, provide 
an index, number pages consecutively with the comments, and submit an 
unbound original and three copies. Electronic comments may be emailed 
to: nceadc.comment@ epa.gov.
    Please note that all technical comments received in response to 
this notice will be public information. For that reason, commentors 
should not submit personal information (such as medical data or home 
address), Confidential Business Information, or information protected 
by copyright. Due to limited resources, acknowledgments will not be 
sent.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information concerning the 
technical workshop please contact Ann Cyrus, Versar, Inc.; telephone: 
(703) 750-3000 extension 274; facsimile: 703-642-6954; email 
[email protected]. For technical inquiries concerning the draft 
Framework for Cumulative Risk Assessment, please contact Steven Knott, 
U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development, Risk Assessment Forum 
(8601-D), 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20460; telephone 
(202) 564-3359; facsimile (202) 565-0062; email epa.gov">knott.steven@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Several reports have highlighted the 
importance of understanding the accumulation of risks from multiple 
environmental stressors. These include the National Research Council's 
(NRC) 1994 report Science and Judgment in Risk Assessment and the 1997 
report by the Presidential/Congressional Commission on Risk Assessment 
and Risk Management entitled Risk Assessment and Risk Management in 
Regulatory Decision-Making. In addition, legislation such as the Food 
Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA), has directed the Environmental 
Protection Agency (EPA) to move beyond single chemical assessments and 
to focus, in part, on the cumulative effects of chemical exposures 
occurring simultaneously. Further emphasizing the need for EPA to focus 
on cumulative risks are cases filed under Title VI of the 1964 Civil 
Rights Act. These cases have necessitated a population-based approach 
to assessing human health risks from environmental contaminants.
    In response to the increasing focus on cumulative risk, several EPA 
programs have begun to explore cumulative approaches to risk 
assessment. In 1997, The EPA Science Policy Council issued a guidance 
on planning and scoping for cumulative risk assessments (http://www.epa.gov/ord/spc/2cumrisk.htm). More recently, the Office of 
Pesticide Programs has developed draft cumulative risk assessment 
guidance focused on implementing certain provisions of FQPA. The Office 
of Air Quality Planning and Standards has applied cumulative exposure 
models in its analyses for the National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment 
(NATA). In addition, community-specific cumulative risk assessment has 
been explored through the Agency's Cumulative Exposure Project.
    The EPA Science Policy Council has asked the Risk Assessment Forum 
(RAF) to begin developing Agency-wide cumulative risk assessment 
guidance that builds from these activities. As a first step, a 
technical panel convened under the RAF has been working to develop a 
Framework for Cumulative Risk Assessment. Building from the Agency's 
growing experiences, this Framework is intended to identify the basic 
elements of the cumulative risk assessment process. It should provide a 
flexible structure for the technical issues

[[Page 42218]]

and define key terms associated with cumulative risk assessment.
    The workshop announced in this notice has two primary purposes. 
First, it will provide interested stakeholders with an opportunity to 
see an early draft of the Framework document. Second, it affords an 
early opportunity to hear input from these stakeholders which will 
assist with further development of the draft Framework. Versar will 
focus the workshop discussion on the technical issues associated with 
the current draft of the Framework for Cumulative Risk Assessment.

    Dated: August 3, 2001.
Art Payne,
Acting Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. 01-20128 Filed 8-9-01; 8:45 am]
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