[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 4 (Thursday, January 7, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 774-775]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-00077]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-HQ-ORD-2015-0684; FRL-9940-77-ORD]
Notice of Availability of Draft Guidelines for Human Exposure
Assessment
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of availability for public comment.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a 45-
day public comment period for the External Review Draft of the
``Guidelines for Human Exposure Assessment.'' EPA is seeking public
comment prior to external peer review. The document will undergo review
during an expert peer review meeting, which will be convened,
organized, and conducted by an independent contractor. The date and
location of the peer review meeting will be announced in a subsequent
Federal Register notice. All comments received in the docket by the
closing date February 22, 2016 will be shared with the peer review
panel for their consideration. Comments received after the close of the
comment period may be considered by EPA when it finalizes the document.
Members of the public may obtain the draft guidance at http://www.regulations.gov; or www.epa.gov/osa/guidelines-human-exposure-assessment or from Dr. Michael Broder via the contact information
below.
DATES: All comments received in the docket by February 22, 2016 will be
shared with the external peer review panel for their consideration.
Comments received beyond that time may be considered by EPA when it
finalizes the document.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
ORD-2015-0684 by one of the following methods:
http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line
instructions for submitting comments.
Email: [email protected].
Mail: ORD Docket, Environmental Protection Agency,
Mailcode: 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20460.
Hand Delivery: EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), Room 3334, EPA
West Building, 1301 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20460,
Attention Docket ID No EPA-HQ-ORD-2015-0684. Deliveries are only
accepted from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding
legal holidays. Special arrangements should be made for deliveries of
boxed information.
Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-
2015-0684. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included
in the public docket without change and may be made available online at
http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information
provided, unless the 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 by statute 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
[[Page 775]]
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.
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 ORD Docket, EPA/
DC, EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW., Washington, DC.
The 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, and the telephone number for the
ORD Docket is (202) 566-1752.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Michael Broder, Office of the
Science Advisor, Mail Code 8105R, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20460; telephone number
(202) 564-3393; fax number (202) 564-2070; or email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The current guidance document for human
exposure assessment, Guidelines for Exposure Assessment, was published
in 1992, reflecting the state-of-the-science in the 1970s and 1980s.
Since its publication, the field of exposure science has undergone
significant transformation in methods and approaches, which EPA has
incorporated into its policies and practices to better align with the
current state-of-the-science. The 1992 guidelines are being updated to
reflect the updated methods and approaches.
The draft guidelines benefit from over two decades of experience
with EPA assessments conducted by Agency programs under their
respective authorities and constraints, and from input from external
panels, including the National Academy of Sciences and EPA's Science
Advisory Board. This draft document builds on topics covered in the
1992 exposure guidelines including planning and scoping for an
assessment, data acquisition and use, modeling, and considerations of
uncertainty in exposure assessment. It also includes new material on
planning and conducting an observational human exposure measurement
study and considerations of lifestages and sensitive populations in
exposure assessments. These draft guidelines present the most current
science used in EPA exposure assessments and incorporates information
about the Agency's current policies.
Dated: December 22, 2015.
Thomas Burke,
EPA Science Advisor.
[FR Doc. 2016-00077 Filed 1-6-16; 8:45 am]
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