[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 136 (Monday, July 16, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41784-41785]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-17145]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-ORD-2012-0523; FRL-9697-4]


Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS); Announcement of 
Availability of Literature Searches for IRIS Assessments

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice of availability of a literature search for 
benzo(a)pyrene; request for information.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing 
the availability of a literature search for benzo(a)pyrene (CASRN 50-
32-8). EPA is also requesting scientific information on health effects 
that may result from exposure to this chemical substance. EPA's IRIS is 
a human health assessment program that evaluates quantitative and 
qualitative risk information on effects that may result from exposure 
to specific chemical substances found in the environment.

DATES: EPA will accept information related to the specific substance 
included herein as well as any other compound being assessed by the 
IRIS Program. Please submit any information in accordance with the 
instructions provided below.

ADDRESSES: Please submit relevant scientific information identified by 
docket ID number EPA-HQ-ORD-2012-0523, online at www.regulations.gov 
(EPA's preferred method); by email to [email protected]; mailed to 
Office of Environmental Information (OEI) Docket (Mail Code: 28221T), 
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW., 
Washington, DC 20460-0001; or by hand delivery or courier to EPA Docket 
Center, EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW., Washington, 
DC, between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding 
legal holidays. Information on a disk or CD-ROM should be formatted in 
Word or as an ASCII file, avoiding the use of special characters and 
any form of encryption, and may be mailed to the mailing address above.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on the IRIS program, 
contact Joseph DeSantis, Senior Advisor for Logistical Support, IRIS 
Division, National Center for Environmental Assessment, (mail code: 
8601P), Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, Washington, DC 20460; telephone: (703) 347-8616, 
facsimile: (703) 347-8696; or email: [email protected].
    For general questions about access to IRIS, or the content of IRIS, 
please call the IRIS Hotline at (202) 566-1676 or send electronic mail 
inquiries to [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    EPA's IRIS is a human health assessment program that evaluates 
quantitative and qualitative risk information on effects that may 
result from exposure to specific 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. The IRIS database contains information for more 
than 540 chemical substances that can be used to support the first two 
steps (hazard identification and dose-response evaluation) of the risk 
assessment process. When supported by available data, IRIS provides 
oral reference doses (RfDs) and inhalation reference concentrations 
(RfCs) for chronic noncancer health effects as well as assessments of 
potential carcinogenic effects resulting from chronic exposure. 
Combined with specific exposure information, government and private 
entities use IRIS to help characterize public health risks of chemical 
substances in a site-specific situation and thereby support risk 
management decisions designed to protect public health.
    This data call-in is a step in the IRIS process. As literature 
searches are completed, the results will be posted on the IRIS Web site 
(http://www.epa.gov/iris). The public is invited to review the 
literature search results and submit additional information to EPA.

Request for Public Involvement in IRIS Assessments

    EPA is soliciting public involvement in assessments on the IRIS 
agenda. While EPA conducts a thorough literature search for each 
chemical substance, there may be unpublished studies or other primary 
technical sources that are not available through the open literature. 
EPA would appreciate receiving scientific information from the public 
during the information gathering stage for the assessment listed in 
this notice or any other assessments on the IRIS agenda. Interested 
persons may provide scientific analyses, studies, and other pertinent 
scientific information. While EPA is primarily soliciting information 
on new assessments, the public may submit information on any chemical 
substance at any time.
    EPA is announcing the availability of an additional literature 
search on the IRIS Web site (www.epa.gov/iris). The public is invited 
to review the literature search results and submit additional 
information to EPA. A literature search is now available for 
benzo(a)pyrene (CASRN 50-32-8) at www.epa.gov/iris under ``IRIS Agenda 
and Literature Searches.'' Additional literature searches will be 
posted as they are completed. Availability will be announced in the 
Federal Register. Instructions on how to submit information are 
provided below under General Information.

[[Page 41785]]

General Information

    Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2012-
0523 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. 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 provide information 
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 main 
text, and submit an unbound original and three copies.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-
2012-0523. 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.
    Docket: 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: July 9, 2012.
Rebecca Clark,
Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. 2012-17145 Filed 7-13-12; 8:45 am]
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