[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 189 (Friday, September 28, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49091-49092]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-21196]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OPP-2018-0632; FRL-9983-92]


Request for Nominations of Experts To Consider for ad hoc 
Participation on Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act 
(FIFRA), Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP)

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 on the Federal Insecticide, 
Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) 
through membership on the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) Science 
Review Board (SRB). All nominees will be considered for ad hoc 
participation providing independent scientific advice to the EPA on 
health and safety issues related to pesticides. The FIFRA SAP is 
comprised of biologists, statisticians, toxicologists and other experts 
and is assisted in their reviews by members of the FQPA SRB.

DATES: Nominations. Nominations should be provided to the Designated 
Federal Officer (DFO) listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT on 
or before November 13, 2018.

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

A. Does this action apply to me?

    This action is directed to the public in general. This action may, 
however, be of interest to those who are or may be required to conduct 
testing of chemical substances and provide submissions to the EPA 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.

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

[[Page 49092]]

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 on the FIFRA SAP. As part of a broader process for 
developing a pool of experts known as the Food Quality Protection Act 
(FQPA) Science Review Board (SRB), Office of Science Coordination and 
Policy (OSCP) staff solicits the public and stakeholder communities 
nominations of prospective candidates for service as ad hoc 
participants on FIFRA SAP reviews. 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: 
Biochemistry; chemistry; epidemiology; human health risk assessment; 
pathology; PBPK modeling; aquatic modeling; pharmacology; ecological 
risk assessment; environmental exposure and fate; environmental 
toxicology; occupational, consumer, and general exposure assessment; 
toxicology; dose response modeling; environmental engineering; 
statistics; water quality monitoring; hydrologist; GIS specialist; 
computational toxicology; entomology; veterinary entomology; medical 
entomology, insect ecology, allergenicity, research veterinarian; 
inhalation toxicology; volatile organics; endocrinology, alternative 
testing methods, high throughput testing approaches, adverse outcome 
pathways, cross species extrapolation, and systematic review. Nominees 
should be scientists who have sufficient professional qualifications, 
including training and experience, and can provide expert comments on 
the pesticide health and safety related issues for a FIFRA SAP 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 
November 13, 2018. The Agency will consider all nominations of 
prospective candidates for service as ad hoc participants on the FIFRA 
SAP that are received on or before that date. However, final selection 
of ad hoc participants is at the discretion of the Agency.
    The selection of scientists to serve as ad hoc participants of the 
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 prospective candidate to fully participate in the Panel'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 FIFRA SAP. Often, 
numerous available and qualified candidates are identified for ad hoc 
participation. 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 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 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. The list of ad hoc 
participants and FIFRA SAP members participating at each meeting will 
be posted on the FIFRA SAP website at http://www.epa.gov/sap or may be 
obtained from the OPP Docket at http://www.regulations.gov.

II. Background

A. Purpose of FIFRA SAP

    The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, Scientific 
Advisory Panel (FIFRA SAP) serves as a primary scientific peer review 
mechanism of EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention 
(OCSPP) and is structured to provide scientific advice, information and 
recommendations to the EPA Administrator on pesticides and pesticide-
related issues as to the impact of regulatory actions on health and the 
environment. FIFRA SAP is a Federal advisory committee established in 
1975 under FIFRA that operates in accordance with requirements of the 
Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. Appendix). FIFRA SAP is 
composed of a permanent panel consisting of seven members who are 
appointed by the EPA Administrator from nominees provided by the 
National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. The 
FIFRA SAP is assisted in their reviews by ad hoc participation from 
members of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) Science Review Board 
(SRB). As a scientific peer review mechanism, FIFRA SAP provides 
comments, evaluations, and recommendations to improve the effectiveness 
and quality of analyses made by Agency scientists. The FIFRA SAP is not 
required to reach consensus in its recommendations to the Agency but 
consensus is a preferred outcome and possible under FACA.
    At this time, EPA is seeking nominations to augment the FQPA SRB, a 
pool of experts who can be available to the SAP on an ad hoc basis to 
assist in peer reviews conducted by the Panel. EPA anticipates 
selecting experts from this pool, as needed, to assist the SAP in their 
peer review of EPA's issues related to the health and safety of 
pesticides.

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

    Dated: September 19, 2018.
Stanley Barone Jr.,
Acting Director, Office of Science Coordination and Policy.
[FR Doc. 2018-21196 Filed 9-27-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P