[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 151 (Wednesday, August 6, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45796-45798]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-18357]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OPPT-2010-0173; FRL-9914-12]


Approach for Estimating Exposures and Incremental Health Effects 
From Lead Due to Renovation, Repair, and Painting Activities in Public 
and Commercial Buildings; Notice of Availability and Request for 
Comment

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: EPA is currently in the process of determining whether or not 
lead-based paint hazards are created by renovation, repair, and 
painting (RRP) activities in public and commercial buildings (P&CBs), 
as required under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). EPA is 
making the following documents available for public review and comment 
before they undergo external peer review: ``Approach for Estimating 
Exposures and Incremental Health Effects from Lead Due to Renovation, 
Repair, and Painting Activities in Public and Commercial Buildings'' 
(the Approach); the detailed appendices for the Approach; and a 
supplementary report, entitled ``Developing a Concentration-Response 
Function for Pb Exposure and Cardiovascular Disease-Related 
Mortality.'' Together, these documents describe a methodology for 
estimating exposures and incremental health effects created by 
renovations of P&CBs. This methodology could be used to identify and 
evaluate hazards from RRP in P&CBs. Also available for public review 
and comment is a list of charge questions that will be directed to the 
external peer reviewers for the Approach.

DATES: Comments must be submitted September 22, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by docket identification 
(ID) number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2010-0173, by one of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Document Control Office (7407M), Office of Pollution 
Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20460-0001.

[[Page 45797]]

     Hand Delivery: To make special arrangements for hand 
delivery or delivery of boxed information, please follow the 
instructions at http://www.epa.gov/dockets/contacts.html.
    Additional instructions on commenting or visiting the docket, along 
with more information about dockets generally, is available at http://www.epa.gov/dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For technical information contact: 
Stan Barone, Jr., Risk Assessment Division (7403M), Office of Pollution 
Prevention and Toxics, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20460-0001; telephone number 
(202) 564-1169; email address: [email protected].
    For general information contact: The TSCA-Hotline, ABVI-Goodwill, 
422 South Clinton Ave., Rochester, NY 14620; telephone number: (202) 
554-1404; email address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. General Information

A. Does this action apply to me?

    This action is directed to the public in general, and may be of 
interest to a wide range of stakeholders including independent 
contractors and contracting companies involved in renovation, repair, 
and painting, as well as academics and members of the public interested 
in environmental and human health assessment and the assessment of 
chemical risks. Since others also may be interested, the Agency has not 
attempted to describe all the specific entities that may be affected by 
this action.

B. What should I consider as I prepare my comments for EPA?

    1. Submitting confidential business information (CBI). Do not 
submit this information to EPA through regulations.gov or email. 
Clearly mark the part or all of the information that you claim to be 
CBI. For CBI information in a disk or CD-ROM that you mail to EPA, mark 
the outside of the disk or CD-ROM as CBI and then identify 
electronically within the disk or CD-ROM the specific information that 
is claimed as CBI. In addition to one complete version of the comment 
that includes information claimed as CBI, a copy of the comment that 
does not contain the information claimed as CBI must be submitted for 
inclusion in the public docket. Information so marked will not be 
disclosed except in accordance with procedures set forth in 40 CFR part 
2.
    2. Tips for preparing your comments. When submitting comments, 
remember to:
    i. Identify the document by docket ID number and other identifying 
information (subject heading, Federal Register date and page number).
    ii. Follow directions. The Agency may ask you to respond to 
specific questions or organize comments by referencing a Code of 
Federal Regulations (CFR) part or section number.
    iii. Explain why you agree or disagree; suggest alternatives and 
substitute language for your requested changes.
    iv. Describe any assumptions and provide any technical information 
and/or data that you used.
    v. If you estimate potential costs or burdens, explain how you 
arrived at your estimate in sufficient detail to allow for it to be 
reproduced.
    vi. Provide specific examples to illustrate your concerns and 
suggest alternatives.
    vii. Explain your views as clearly as possible, avoiding the use of 
profanity or personal threats.
    viii. Make sure to submit your comments by the comment period 
deadline identified.

II. Background

    EPA is currently in the process of determining whether or not lead-
based paint hazards are created by RRP activities in P&CBs, as required 
under TSCA, Subtitle IV (15 U.S.C. 2681 et seq.). For those renovation 
activities in P&CBs that create lead-based paint hazards, TSCA directs 
EPA to address the hazards through regulation.
    EPA recently published in the Federal Register of May 30, 2014 
(Ref. 1) a document for public comment, entitled ``Framework for 
Identifying and Evaluating Lead-Based Paint Hazards from Renovation, 
Repair, and Painting Activities in Public and Commercial Buildings'' 
(Ref. 2). This Framework document described, in general terms, how EPA 
could identify and evaluate hazards in P&CBs.
    The current document, entitled ``Approach for Estimating Exposures 
and Incremental Health Effects from Lead Due to Renovation, Repair, and 
Painting Activities in Public and Commercial Buildings'' (Ref. 3) 
describes how EPA is modeling the potential overall magnitude and 
distribution of renovation-related health effects due to lead exposure 
from a renovation in a P&CB, taking into account background lead levels 
when no such renovation exposure occurs. Based on information developed 
through the Approach, renovation-related health effects will be 
estimated as the difference between total health effects (background 
plus renovation-related) and background. Exposures from renovation 
activities that disturb lead-based paint are connected to subsequent 
health effects in children and adults through modeling. Separate Monte-
Carlo based models were constructed for the analysis of exterior 
renovations of P&CBs and interior renovations of P&CBs.
    The Monte Carlo analysis is designed to capture potential 
population-level variability within each exposure scenario and, as 
such, approximates the potential distribution of effects to the part of 
the U.S. population who would fall within any scenario. However, the 
results presented in the Approach are not representative of an overall 
distribution of the entire U.S. population. All scenarios are not 
equally likely, and in fact some scenarios may be very unlikely to 
occur. In the future, EPA plans to estimate how many people may be 
reasonably expected to be exposed in different scenarios.
    After further analysis, the full results of the Approach, along 
with information about how often any scenario is expected to actually 
occur, will be used to consider whether or not renovation activities in 
P&CBs create hazards and, if so, what mitigation measures may be 
appropriate. EPA plans to consider renovation-related dust loadings, 
blood lead, and health effect changes across exposure scenarios in 
order to evaluate whether a hazard occurs. A detailed discussion of the 
additional analyses and considerations that would inform EPA's process 
of making a hazard finding, or a finding of no hazard, are contained in 
the Approach. By itself, the Approach methodology cannot be used to 
determine whether hazards exist from P&CB renovations. EPA will need to 
conduct additional analyses and make certain science policy decisions 
in order to determine whether such hazards exist.
    EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) has 
identified the Approach as an influential product and according to EPA 
peer review guidance is conducting an external peer review of that 
document, supplemental files, appendices (Ref. 4), and attendant models 
used for exposure scenarios. The external peer reviewers will assess 
the accuracy and content of the Approach, ensuring that the Approach 
and initial results are scientifically sound. The external peer review 
will also address the supplemental documents, which include detailed 
appendices for the Approach and a supplementary report relating lead 
exposure to Cardiovascular

[[Page 45798]]

Disease (CVD) mortality and proposing an approach to quantify adult 
health benefits from a reduction in lead (Pb) exposure for CVD 
mortality, entitled ``Developing a Concentration-Response Function for 
Pb Exposure and Cardiovascular Disease-Related Mortality'' (Ref. 5). 
The panel peer review meetings are expected to occur later in 2014, and 
the public will have an opportunity to review and comment on the 
materials given to the external peer reviewers.

III. Request for Comment

    EPA is requesting public review and comment on all aspects of the 
Approach and its supplemental files, appendices, attendant models, peer 
review charge (Ref. 6), and particularly related to the following:
     The utility of the Approach for estimating exposures 
through summarizing building use configuration types and human-activity 
patterns to incorporate variability across the wide variety of P&CBs.
     The utility of the updated Leggett Model (original model 
described in Leggett 1993 (Ref. 7); updated model described in the 
appendices to the Approach (Ref. 4)) to estimate blood lead levels for 
both children and adults, and specifically the use of the various 
outputs derived from the Leggett Model (concurrent blood lead, lifetime 
blood lead, and bone lead) in concentration-response curves for 
children and adults.
     The utility of concentration-response functions for health 
endpoints in both children and adults for assessing risk to human 
health inside P&CBs as a result of P&CB renovations.

IV. References

    The following is a listing of the documents that are specifically 
referenced in this document. The docket includes these documents and 
other information considered by EPA, including documents that are 
referenced within the documents that are included in the docket, even 
if the referenced document is not physically located in the docket. For 
assistance in locating these other documents, please consult the 
technical person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

    1. EPA. Lead; Framework for Identifying and Evaluating Lead-
Based Paint Hazards From Renovation, Repair, and Painting Activities 
in Public and Commercial Buildings. Federal Register (79 FR 31072, 
May 30, 2014) (FRL-9910-44).
    2. EPA. Framework for Identifying and Evaluating Lead-Based 
Paint Hazards From Renovation, Repair, and Painting Activities in 
Public and Commercial Buildings. May 2014. Document ID number EPA-
HQ-OPPT-2010-0173-0196. Also available at http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-05/documents/lead_pncb_framework_document.pdf.
    3. EPA. Approach for Estimating Exposures and Incremental Health 
Effects from Lead Due to Renovation, Repair, and Painting Activities 
in Public and Commercial Buildings. July 2014. Docket ID number EPA-
HQ-OPPT-2010-0173.
    4. EPA. Appendices to the Approach for Estimating Exposures and 
Incremental Health Effects from Lead due to Renovation, Repair, and 
Painting Activities in Public and Commercial Buildings. July 2014. 
Docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2010-0173.
    5. EPA. Developing a Concentration-Response Function for Pb 
Exposure and Cardiovascular Disease-Related Mortality. July 2014. 
Docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2010-0173.
    6. EPA. Charge Questions for Approach for Estimating Exposures 
and Incremental Health Effects from Lead due to Renovation, Repair, 
and Painting Activities in Public and Commercial Buildings. July 
2014. Docket ID EPA-HQ-OPPT-2010-0173.
    7. Leggett, R.W. An age-specific kinetic model of lead 
metabolism in humans. Environmental Health Perspectives. 101:598-
616. 1993.

List of Subjects

    Environmental protection, Business and industry, Commercial 
buildings, Lead, Peer revew, Renovation, Risk assessment.

    Dated: July 28, 2014.
Wendy C. Hamnett,
Director, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics.
[FR Doc. 2014-18357 Filed 8-5-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P