[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 178 (Thursday, September 13, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46487-46488]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-19952]



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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0605; FRL-9983-09]


Request for Nominations of Experts To Consider for ad hoc 
Participation and Possible Membership on the Toxic Substances Control 
Act (TSCA), Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC)

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The EPA requests public nominations of scientific experts to 
be considered for ad hoc participation and possible membership on the 
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Science Advisory Committee on 
Chemicals (SACC). All nominees will be considered for ad hoc 
participation in the TSCA SACC's peer reviews of the EPA's risk 
evaluations for the first 10 chemical substances addressed under the 
TSCA. In addition, all nominees may be considered for TSCA SACC 
membership to fulfill short term needs when a vacancy occurs on the 
chartered Committee.

DATES: Nominations. Nominations should be provided to the Designated 
Federal Official (DFO) listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT on 
or before October 29, 2018.
    For additional instructions, see Unit I.B. of the SUPPLEMENTARY 
INFORMATION.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Todd Peterson, DFO, Office of 
Science Coordination and Policy (7201M), Environmental Protection 
Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460-0001; telephone 
number: (202) 564-6428; 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. This action may, 
however, be of interest to persons who are or may be required to 
conduct testing and risk evaluations of chemical substances under the 
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). 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.

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

    1. Submitting CBI. Do not submit CBI information to EPA through 
regulations.gov or email. If your nomination contains any information 
that you consider to be CBI or otherwise protected, please contact the 
DFO listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT to obtain special 
instructions before submitting your nomination.
    2. Request for nominations to be considered for ad hoc 
participation and possible membership on the TSCA SACC. As part of a 
broader process for developing a pool of candidates, OSCP staff 
solicits from the public and stakeholder communities nominations of 
prospective candidates for service as ad hoc reviewers and possibly 
members of TSCA SACC. Any interested person or organization may 
nominate qualified individuals to be considered as prospective 
candidates. Individuals may self-nominate. Individuals nominated should 
have expertise in one or more of the following areas: Women's health; 
children's health; genetic variability; disproportionately exposed 
populations; aging; other susceptible populations; biochemistry; 
chemistry; epidemiology; human health risk assessment; pathology; PBPK 
modeling; pharmacology; ecological risk assessment; environmental fate; 
environmental toxicology; occupational, consumer, and general exposure 
assessment; toxicology; dose response modeling; environmental 
engineering; biostatistics; computational toxicology; fiber science; 
inhalation toxicology; volatile organics; and systematic review. 
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 a TSCA SACC 
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 October 29, 2018. The Agency will consider all nominations of 
prospective candidates for service as ad hoc reviewers and possibly 
members of the TSCA SACC that are received on or before that date. 
However, final selection of ad hoc participants and members is at the 
discretion of the Agency.
    The selection of scientists to serve as ad hoc reviewers and 
members of the TSCA SACC is based on the function of the Committee and 
the expertise needed to address the Agency's charge to the Committee. 
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 prospective candidate to fully 
participate in the Committee's reviews, absence of any conflicts of 
interest or appearance of loss of impartiality, independence with 
respect to the matters under review, and lack of bias. Although 
financial conflicts of interest, the appearance of loss 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 TSCA SACC. Often, numerous 
available and qualified candidates are identified for ad hoc 
participation and membership. 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 Committee.
    TSCA SACC 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 TSCA SACC 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 candidates' financial 
disclosure forms to assess whether there are financial conflicts of 
interest, appearance of a loss 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 TSCA SACC. 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. The list of ad hoc 
reviewers and TSCA SACC members participating at each meeting will be 
posted on the TSCA SACC website at http://www.epa.gov/tsca-peer-review 
or may be obtained from the OPPT Docket at http://www.regulations.gov.

II. Background

A. Purpose of TSCA SACC

    The Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) was established 
by EPA in 2016 under the authority of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical 
Safety for the 21st Century Act, Public Law 114-

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182, 140 Stat. 448 (2016), and operates in accordance with the Federal 
Advisory Committee Act (FACA) of 1972. The SACC supports activities 
under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), 15 U.S.C. 2601 et seq., 
the Pollution Prevention Act (PPA), 42 U.S.C. 13101 et seq., and other 
applicable statutes. The SACC provides independent scientific advice 
and recommendations to the EPA on the scientific and technical aspects 
of risk assessments, methodologies, and pollution prevention measures 
and approaches for chemicals regulated under TSCA.
    The SACC is comprised of experts in: Toxicology; environmental risk 
assessment; exposure assessment; and related sciences (e.g., synthetic 
biology, pharmacology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, biochemistry, 
biostatistics, PBPK modeling, computational toxicology, epidemiology, 
environmental fate, and environmental engineering and sustainability). 
The SACC currently consists of 26 members. When needed, the committee 
will be assisted in their reviews by ad hoc reviewers with specific 
expertise in the topics under consideration.
    At this time, EPA is seeking nominations to create a pool of 
experts who can be available to the SACC to assist in reviews conducted 
by the Committee. EPA anticipates selecting experts from this pool, as 
needed, to assist the SACC in their review of EPA's risk evaluations 
for the first 10 chemical substances addressed under the TSCA: Pigment 
Violet 29; 1,4-Dioxane, Asbestos; Cyclic Aliphatic Bromide Cluster 
(HBCD); 1-Bromopropane; Perchloroethylene; Trichloroethylene; Carbon 
Tetrachloride; Methylene Chloride; and n-Methylpyrolidone.
    In addition, EPA anticipates selecting from the pool of experts, as 
needed, to appoint SACC members to fulfill short term needs when a 
vacancy occurs on the Committee due to resignation or reasons other 
than expiration of a term.

    Authority: 15 U.S.C. 2625 et seq.; 5 U.S.C. Appendix 2 et seq.

    Dated: September 4, 2018.
Stanley Barone, Jr.,
Acting Director, Office of Science Coordination and Policy.
[FR Doc. 2018-19952 Filed 9-12-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P