[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 241 (Monday, December 18, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60011-60012]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-27213]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OPP-2017-0180; FRL-9970-45]


Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act Scientific 
Advisory Panel (FIFRA SAP) Request for Ad Hoc Expert Nominations; 
Notice of Public Meeting

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Agency is issuing this notice to announce the opportunity 
to provide additional nominations for experts to serve as ad hoc 
members for the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act 
Scientific Advisory Panel (FIFRA SAP) reviewing physiologically-based 
pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling to address pharmacokinetic differences 
between and within species on six selected pesticidal active 
ingredients. This meeting of the FIFRA SAP, originally scheduled for 
October 24-27, 2017, has been postponed until 2018. New dates for this 
meeting will be announced in a separate notice.

DATES: The meeting will be rescheduled for 2018. The Agency will issue 
another announcement once the new date for the SAP meeting on PBPK 
modeling has been determined.
    Nominations. Nominations of candidates to serve as ad hoc members 
of FIFRA SAP for this meeting should be provided on or before January 
17, 2018. See Request for Nominations section for more detail.
    Submit nominations to serve as ad hoc members of FIFRA SAP, 
requests for special accommodations, or requests to present oral 
comments to the DFO listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Marquea D. King, DFO, Office of

[[Page 60012]]

Science Coordination and Policy (7201M), Environmental Protection 
Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460-0001; telephone 
number: 202-564-3626; email address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. General Information

Does this action apply to me?

    This action is directed to the public in general. This action may 
be of interest to persons who are or may be required to conduct testing 
of chemical substances under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act 
(FFDCA) and FIFRA. Since other entities may also be interested, the 
Agency has not attempted to describe all the specific entities that may 
be affected by this action.
    Request for nominations to serve as ad hoc expert members of FIFRA 
SAP for this meeting. As part of a broader process for developing a 
pool of candidates, FIFRA SAP staff routinely solicits the stakeholder 
community for nominations of prospective candidates for service as ad 
hoc members of FIFRA SAP. Both U.S. citizens and permanent residents 
who can demonstrate they are actively seeking U.S. citizenship will be 
considered. Any interested person or organization may nominate 
qualified individuals to be considered as prospective candidates for a 
specific meeting. Individuals nominated for this meeting should have 
expertise in one or more of the following areas: PBPK modeling, 
pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamic (PD) modeling, in vitro to in vivo 
extrapolation, human health risk assessment, neurotoxicity, 
organophosphate pesticides, pyrethroids pesticides, N-methyl carbamate 
pesticides, fungicides, acetylcholinesterase inhibition, and exposure 
assessment. Nominees should be scientists who have sufficient 
professional qualifications, including training and experience, to be 
capable of providing expert comments on the scientific issues for this 
meeting. Nominees should be identified by name, occupation, position, 
address, email address, and telephone number. Nominations should be 
provided to the DFO listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT on or 
before January 17, 2018. The Agency will consider all nominations of 
prospective candidates for this meeting that are received on or before 
that date. However, final selection of ad hoc members for this meeting 
is a discretionary function of the Agency.
    The selection of scientists to serve on FIFRA SAP is based on the 
function of the Panel and the expertise needed to address the Agency's 
charge to the Panel. No interested scientists shall be ineligible to 
serve by reason of their membership on any other advisory committee to 
a Federal department or agency or their employment by a Federal 
department or agency, except EPA. Other factors considered during the 
selection process include availability of the potential Panel member to 
fully participate in the Panel's review, absence of any conflicts of 
interest or appearance of lack of impartiality, independence with 
respect to the matters under review, and lack of bias. Although 
financial conflicts of interest, the appearance of lack of 
impartiality, lack of independence, and bias may result in 
disqualification, the absence of such concerns does not assure that a 
candidate will be selected to serve on FIFRA SAP. Numerous qualified 
candidates are identified for each Panel. Therefore, selection 
decisions involve carefully weighing a number of factors including the 
candidates' areas of expertise and professional qualifications and 
achieving an overall balance of different scientific perspectives on 
the Panel.
    FIFRA SAP members are subject to the provisions of 5 CFR part 
2634--Executive Branch Financial Disclosure, Qualified Trusts, and 
Certificates of Divestiture, as supplemented by EPA in 5 CFR part 6401. 
In anticipation of this requirement, prospective candidates for service 
on FIFRA SAP will be asked to submit confidential financial information 
which shall fully disclose, among other financial interests, the 
candidate's employment, stocks, and bonds, and where applicable, 
sources of research support. EPA will evaluate the candidate's 
financial disclosure form to assess whether there are financial 
conflicts of interest, appearance of a lack of impartiality, or any 
prior involvement with the development of the documents under 
consideration (including previous scientific peer review) before the 
candidate is considered further for service on FIFRA SAP. Those who are 
selected from the pool of prospective candidates will be asked to 
attend the public meetings and to participate in the discussion of key 
issues and assumptions at these meetings. In addition, they will be 
asked to review and to help finalize the meeting minutes and the final 
meeting report. The list of FIFRA SAP members participating at this 
meeting will be posted on the FIFRA SAP website at https://www.epa.gov/sap or may be obtained from the OPP Docket at http://www.regulations.gov.

II. Background

Purpose of FIFRA SAP

    The Agency is issuing this notice to announce the opportunity to 
provide additional nominations for experts to serve as ad hoc members 
for the FIFRA SAP reviewing PBPK modeling to address pharmacokinetic 
differences between and within species on six selected pesticidal 
active ingredients. The meeting, originally scheduled for October 24-
27, 2017 as announced in the Federal Register on June 6, 2017 (82 FR 
26086) (FRL 9962-78), has been postponed until 2018. The new meeting 
dates will be announced once they are selected. For additional 
information, please visit the public docket for this meeting at http://www.regulations.gov (Docket number EPA-HQ-OPP-2017-0180), the FIFRA SAP 
website at http://www.epa.gov/sap or contact the Designated Federal 
Official (DFO) listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

    Authority: 7 U.S.C. 136 et. seq.; 21 U.S.C. 301 et seq.

    Dated: November 16, 2017.
Stanley Barone, Jr.,
Acting Director, Office of Science Coordination and Policy.
[FR Doc. 2017-27213 Filed 12-15-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P