[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 198 (Tuesday, October 14, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 59172-59173]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-25935]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-7574-3]


Meeting on Papers Addressing Scientific Issues in the Risk 
Assessment of Metals

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

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SUMMARY: Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces 
an October 28, 2003, public meeting on five draft scientific white 
papers on metals risk assessment. Development of the papers was led by 
Eastern Research Group Inc., a contractor to EPA. The notice of 
availability of these papers for review and comment was published in an 
earlier Federal Register Notice (68 FR 55051, September 22, 2003). 
Consistent with EPA's commitment to provide opportunities for external 
input, the Agency now announces a public meeting to gather further 
feedback on the draft papers. In order to assist in compiling comments 
on the issue papers, the Agency asks that commenters address questions 
posed in the September 22, 2003, Federal Register Notice. These 
questions are reprinted below under SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. ERG, the 
EPA contractor who lead the development of the issue papers, is 
organizing and convening the meeting.

DATES: The public meeting will be held Tuesday, October 28, 2003, from 
9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Participants wishing to 
attend are asked to register with ERG by October 21, 2003.

ADDRESSES: The public meeting will be held at the Hotel Washington, 515 
15th Street at Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20004. You may 
register online at https://www.ergweb.com/projects/metalreg/index.html. 
You may also register by calling ERG at (781) 674-7374. Space is 
limited and reservations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served 
basis. Please let ERG know if you plan to make comments at the meeting.
    EPA has established an official public docket for comments under 
Docket Identification Number OAR-2003-0192. An electronic version of 
the public docket is available through EPA's electronic public docket 
and comment system, EPA Dockets. Comments may be submitted and reviewed 
on-line at http://www.epa.gov/edocket as detailed in the earlier 
Federal Register Notice (68 FR 55051, September 22, 2003) entitled 
``Papers Addressing Scientific Issues in the Risk Assessment of 
Metals''.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For meeting information, registration, 
and logistics, contact ERG, 110 Hartwell Avenue, Lexington, 
Massachusetts 02421; telephone: (781) 674-7374; facsimile: (781) 674-
2906.
    For technical information on the white papers, contact Dr. William 
P. Wood, Executive Director, Risk Assessment Forum, National Center for 
Environmental Assessment, Office of Research and Development; 
telephone: (202) 564-3361; facsimile: (202) 565-0062; or email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Presentations: Members of the public who are interested in making a 
short presentation on scientific issues at the meeting are requested to 
indicate this interest at the time of registration. EPA would 
appreciate provision of a short summary of the presentation, which 
should be no more than one page. Please provide this summary in written 
and electronic format upon arrival at the meeting. Presentations should 
be no more than 20 minutes in duration, subject to the number of 
presentations registered. Because EPA is seeking a variety of opinions, 
the facilitator will ensure that there is a balance of time allotted. 
Presenters please note that ERG may record the meeting proceedings to 
support their developing a meeting summary report. Resources ERG uses 
in the development of the report will remain the property of ERG. EPA 
will make the summary report available on-line through the Risk 
Assessment Forum's Web site, http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/raf/.

[[Page 59173]]

    Comments: Comments presented during the meeting should be submitted 
to Edocket. In addition, please submit one unbound original set of 
comments with pages numbered consecutively at the meeting. For 
attachments, provide an index and number pages consecutively with the 
comments. Because all comments received will be placed in Edocket, 
commentors should not submit personal information (such as medical data 
or home address), Confidential Business Information, or information 
protected by copyright.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: During their September 2002 review of the 
Agency's draft action plan for the development of a metals framework, 
the EPA Science Advisory Board emphasized the importance of engaging 
the outside community so as to contribute to the knowledge base the 
Agency would draw from in developing guidance on the risk assessment of 
metals. As part of the effort to engage stakeholders and the scientific 
community and to build on existing experience, the Agency commissioned 
ERG to organize external experts to lead the development of scientific 
papers on issues and state-of-the-art approaches to metals risk 
assessment. (Some individual EPA experts contributed specific 
discussions on topic(s) for which he or she has scientific expertise or 
knowledge of current Agency practice.)
    On September 22, 2003, EPA published a Federal Register Notice 
announcing the availability of, and opportunity to comment on, five 
draft scientific white papers titled: (1) Issue Paper on the 
Environmental Chemistry of Metals, (2) Issue Paper on Metal Exposure 
Assessment, (3) Issue Paper on the Ecological Effects of Metals, (4) 
Issue Paper on the Human Health Effects of Metals, and (5) Issue Paper 
on the Bioavailability and Bioaccumulation of Metals. The draft issue 
papers are available primarily via the Internet on the Risk Assessment 
Forum's web page at http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/raf/recordisplay.cfm?deid=59052. Comments will be received on the draft 
papers until November 7, 2003.
    The public meeting will provide further opportunity for the Agency 
to receive stakeholder input. EPA is particularly interested in the 
public's perspectives on the following:
    1. For the purpose of deriving general principles that can be 
applied in the assessment of metals, do the issue papers provide an 
appropriate level of detail?
    2. Are there additional chemical, biological and physical processes 
that should be considered for metals assessment? If so, please describe 
and provide references.
    3. Are you aware of any models, approaches or methods not 
considered in the reports that, if implemented, would substantially 
reduce uncertainty in the Agency's metal assessments? If so, which ones 
are ready for application now (or in the next few years), and which 
types of assessments would benefit most from their application (e.g., 
hazard ranking/characterization, national, or site-specific 
assessments)?
    4. What other suggestions do you have to improve the utility of 
these papers as the Agency develops a metals assessment framework?
    The purpose of this meeting is for EPA to receive additional 
scientific comment from the public on the issue papers. Therefore, 
although EPA staff will be present, EPA will not evaluate or respond to 
comments at the meeting. Likewise, EPA is not soliciting comments on 
past Agency actions.
    The views expressed in the draft papers are those of the authors 
and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the EPA. For 
this reason, disposition of scientific comments received on these 
papers will be made at the author's or author team's discretion. The 
material contained in the papers may be used in total, or in part, as 
source material for the Agency's framework for metals risk assessment 
and EPA's evaluation of this material will therefore include 
consideration of the Assessment Factors recently published by EPA for 
use in evaluating the quality of scientific and technical information.

    Dated: October 7, 2003.
Peter W. Preuss,
Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. 03-25935 Filed 10-10-03; 8:45 am]
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