Chemical Assessments: EPA's New Assessment Process Will Further  
Limit the Productivity and Credibility of Its Integrated Risk	 
Information System (21-MAY-08, GAO-08-810T).			 
                                                                 
The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Integrated Risk	 
Information System (IRIS) contains EPA's scientific position on  
the potential human health effects of exposure to more than 540  
chemicals. Toxicity assessments in the IRIS database constitute  
the first two critical steps of the risk assessment process,	 
which in turn, provides the foundation for risk management	 
decisions. Thus, IRIS is a critical component of EPA's capacity  
to support scientifically sound environmental decisions,	 
policies, and regulations. This testimony discusses (1) 	 
highlights of GAO's March 2008 report, Chemical Assessments: Low 
Productivity and New Interagency Review Process Limit the	 
Usefulness and Credibility of EPA's Integrated Risk Information  
System, and (2) key aspects of EPA's revised IRIS assessment	 
process, released on April 10, 2008. For the March 2008 report,  
GAO reviewed and analyzed EPA data and interviewed officials at  
relevant agencies, including the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB). For this testimony, GAO supplemented the prior audit work 
with a review of EPA's revised IRIS assessment process announced 
on April 10, 2008.						 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-08-810T					        
    ACCNO:   A82171						        
  TITLE:     Chemical Assessments: EPA's New Assessment Process Will  
Further Limit the Productivity and Credibility of Its Integrated 
Risk Information System 					 
     DATE:   05/21/2008 
  SUBJECT:   Chemical agents					 
	     Chemical exposure					 
	     Chemical regulation				 
	     Chemical research					 
	     Chemicals						 
	     Data integrity					 
	     Databases						 
	     Environmental monitoring				 
	     Health hazards					 
	     Information disclosure				 
	     Information infrastructure 			 
	     Information management				 
	     Interagency relations				 
	     Policy evaluation					 
	     Program evaluation 				 
	     Program management 				 
	     Public health					 
	     Regulatory agencies				 
	     Reporting requirements				 
	     Risk assessment					 
	     Risk management					 
	     Schedule slippages 				 
	     Systems evaluation 				 
	     Assessments					 
	     Transparency					 
	     EPA Integrated Risk Information System		 

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GAO-08-810T

   

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Testimony before the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, 
Committee on Science and Technology, House of Representatives: 

United States Government Accountability Office: 
GAO: 

For Release on Delivery:
Expected at 11:00 a.m. EDT: 
Wednesday, May 21, 2008: 

Chemical Assessments: 

EPA's New Assessment Process Will Further Limit the Productivity and 
Credibility of Its Integrated Risk Information System: 

Statement of John B. Stephenson, Director:
Natural Resources and Environment: 

GAO-08-810T: 

GAO Highlights: 

Highlights of GAO-08-810T, testimony before the Subcommittee on 
Investigations and Oversight, Committee on Science and Technology, 
House of Representatives. 

Why GAO Did This Study: 

The Environmental Protection Agencyï¿½s (EPA) Integrated Risk Information 
System (IRIS) contains EPAï¿½s scientific position on the potential human 
health effects of exposure to more than 540 chemicals. Toxicity 
assessments in the IRIS database constitute the first two critical 
steps of the risk assessment process, which in turn, provides the 
foundation for risk management decisions. Thus, IRIS is a critical 
component of EPAï¿½s capacity to support scientifically sound 
environmental decisions, policies, and regulations. 

This testimony discusses (1) highlights of GAOï¿½s March 2008 report, 
Chemical Assessments: Low Productivity and New Interagency Review 
Process Limit the Usefulness and Credibility of EPAï¿½s Integrated Risk 
Information System, and (2) key aspects of EPAï¿½s revised IRIS 
assessment process, released on April 10, 2008. For the March 2008 
report, GAO reviewed and analyzed EPA data and interviewed officials at 
relevant agencies, including the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 
For this testimony, GAO supplemented the prior audit work with a review 
of EPAï¿½s revised IRIS assessment process announced on April 10, 2008. 

What GAO Found: 

In its March 2008 report, GAO concluded that the IRIS database is at 
serious risk of becoming obsolete because EPA has not been able to 
routinely complete timely, credible assessments or decrease its backlog 
of 70 ongoing assessmentsï¿½a total of 4 were completed in fiscal years 
2006 and 2007. In addition, recent assessment process changes, as well 
as other changes EPA was considering at the time of GAOï¿½s review, 
further reduce the timeliness and credibility of IRIS assessments. 

* EPAï¿½s efforts to finalize assessments have been thwarted by a 
combination of factors, including two new OMB-required reviews of IRIS 
assessments by OMB and other federal agencies; EPA management 
decisions, such as delaying some assessments to await new research; and 
the compounding effect of delaysï¿½even one delay can have a domino 
effect, requiring the process to essentially be repeated. 

* The two new OMB/interagency reviews of draft assessments involve 
other federal agencies in EPAï¿½s IRIS assessment process in a manner 
that limits the credibility of IRIS assessments and hinders EPAï¿½s 
ability to manage them. For example, the OMB/interagency reviews lack 
transparency, and OMB required EPA to terminate five assessments EPA 
had initiated to help it implement the Clean Air Act. 

* The changes to the IRIS assessment process that EPA was considering, 
but had not yet issued at the time of our review, would have added to 
the already unacceptable level of delays in completing IRIS assessments 
and further limited the credibility of the assessments. 

On April 10, 2008, EPA issued its revised IRIS assessment process, 
effective immediately. In its February 2008 comments on GAOï¿½s draft 
report, EPA said it would consider the reportï¿½s recommendations, which 
were aimed at streamlining the process and better ensuring that EPA has 
the ability to develop transparent, credible assessments. However, 
EPAï¿½s new process is largely the same as the draft GAO evaluated, and 
some key changes are likely to further exacerbate the productivity and 
credibility concerns GAO identified. For example, while the draft 
process would have made comments from other federal agencies on IRIS 
assessments part of the public record, EPAï¿½s new process expressly 
defines such comments as ï¿½deliberativeï¿½ and excludes them from the 
public record. GAO continues to believe that it is critical that input 
from all partiesï¿½particularly agencies that may be affected by the 
outcome of IRIS assessmentsï¿½be publicly available. In addition, the 
estimated time frames under the new process, especially for chemicals 
of key concern, will likely perpetuate the cycle of delays to which the 
majority of ongoing assessments have been subject. Instead of 
significantly streamlining the process, which GAO recommended, EPA has 
institutionalized a process that from the outset is estimated to take 6 
to 8 years to complete. This is problematic because of the substantial 
rework such cases often require to take into account changing science 
and methodologies. Since EPAï¿½s new process is not responsive to GAOï¿½s 
recommendations, the viability of this critical database has been 
further jeopardized. 

To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on 
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-810T]. For more 
information, contact John B. Stephenson at (202) 512-3841 or 
[email protected]. 

[End of section] 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: 

I am pleased to be here today to discuss issues associated with the 
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Integrated Risk Information 
System (IRIS)--one of the most significant tools that EPA has developed 
to effectively support its mission of protecting people and the 
environment from harmful chemical exposures. IRIS contains EPA's 
scientific position on the potential human health effects that may 
result from exposure to more than 540 chemicals in the environment and 
is a critical component of EPA's capacity to support scientifically 
sound risk management decisions, policies, and regulations. IRIS is 
also relied upon by state and local environmental programs and some 
international regulatory bodies for managing their environmental 
protection programs. As shown in figure 1, the toxicity assessments in 
the IRIS database fulfill the first two critical steps of the four-step 
risk assessment process--providing hazard identification and 
quantitative dose-response assessments. IRIS information can then be 
used with the results of exposure assessments (typically conducted by 
EPA's program or regional offices) to provide an overall 
characterization of the public health risks for a given chemical in a 
given situation. The development of health risk assessments is thus 
directly dependent on the development of toxicity assessments such as 
those developed in the IRIS program. 

Figure 1: National Academies' Risk Assessment and Risk Management Model 
Used by EPA: 

[See PDF for image] 

This figure is an illustration of the National Academies' Risk 
Assessment and Risk Management Model Used by EPA. The following 
information is depicted: 

Risk assessment: 

IRIS toxicity assessment: 
1. Hazard identification; 
2. Dose-response assessments; 
3. Exposure assessment; 
These three above combine to develop:
4. Risk characterization. 

Risk management: 
Development of regulatory options; 
Evaluation of public health, economic, social, and political 
consequences of regulatory options; 
The IRIS toxicity assessment combines with the risk management factors 
to yield: 
Agency decisions and actions. 

Source: National Academies. 

[End of figure] 

Under the National Academies' risk assessment and risk management 
paradigm, policy considerations are relevant in the risk management 
phase, which occurs after the risk assessment phase.[Footnote 1] With 
risk assessment information, decision makers can make informed risk 
management decisions on how to protect public health, reflecting other 
important data and considerations, such as the costs and benefits of 
mitigating identified risks, the technological feasibility of managing 
risks, and the concerns of various stakeholders. Examples of risk 
management decisions include deciding how much of a chemical a company 
may discharge into a river, determining the extent to which a hazardous 
waste site must be cleaned up, and setting allowable levels of 
contamination in drinking water. 

Thus, although IRIS assessments are not regulatory in nature, the 
quantitative IRIS values may influence many risk management decisions 
and serve as a basis for regulatory consideration. However, EPA's 
productivity in finalizing IRIS assessments is poor, and EPA has a 
significant backlog of incomplete IRIS assessments and a growing number 
of outdated assessments. Importantly, EPA has not been able to complete 
assessments of key chemicals of concern to public health, including 
dioxin, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene (TCE), naphthalene, and 
tetrachloroethylene (perc) (see app. I). 

In this context, my testimony today discusses (1) highlights of our 
March 2008 report, Chemical Assessments: Low Productivity and New 
Interagency Review Process Limit the Usefulness and Credibility of 
EPA's Integrated Risk Information System[Footnote 2] and (2) key 
aspects of EPA's revised IRIS assessment process, released on April 10, 
2008. For our March 2008 report, we examined the outcome of steps EPA 
has taken to ensure that IRIS contains current, credible chemical risk 
information; to address the backlog of ongoing assessments; and to 
respond to new requirements from the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB). We also examined the potential effects of planned changes to the 
IRIS assessment process on EPA's ability to ensure that IRIS provides 
current, credible risk information. In conducting our work, we obtained 
and analyzed information on EPA's productivity and the resources 
provided to the program for fiscal years 2000 through 2007, user needs, 
and EPA's assessment completion goals. We also interviewed EPA's 
National Center for Environmental Assessment officials who manage the 
IRIS assessment program; officials from other EPA program offices and 
federal science and health agencies involved in the IRIS assessment 
process; and officials from the Department of Defense, the Department 
of Energy (DOE), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
(NASA), and OMB. For this testimony, we supplemented our report with a 
review of the IRIS assessment process that EPA released on April 10, 
2008. We conducted this work from May 7 to May 21, 2008, in accordance 
with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards 
require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, 
appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and 
conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence 
obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions 
based on our audit objectives. 

Background: 

IRIS was created in 1985 to help EPA develop consensus opinions within 
the agency about the health effects of chronic exposure to chemicals. 
Its importance has increased over time as EPA program offices and the 
states have increasingly relied on IRIS information in making 
environmental protection decisions. Currently, the IRIS database 
contains assessments of more than 540 chemicals. According to EPA, 
national and international users access the IRIS database approximately 
9 million times a year. EPA's Assistant Administrator for the Office of 
Research and Development has described IRIS as the premier national and 
international source for qualitative and quantitative chemical risk 
information; other federal agencies have noted that IRIS data are 
widely accepted by all levels of government across the country for 
application of public health policy, providing benefits such as 
uniform, standardized methods for toxicology testing and risk 
assessment, as well as uniform toxicity values. Similarly, a private- 
sector risk assessment expert has stated that the IRIS database has 
become the most important source of regulatory toxicity values for use 
across EPA's programs and is also widely used across state programs and 
internationally. 

Historically and currently, the focus of IRIS toxicity assessments has 
been on the potential health effects of long-term (chronic) exposure to 
chemicals. According to OMB, EPA is the only federal agency that 
develops qualitative and quantitative assessments of both cancer and 
noncancer risks of exposure to chemicals, and EPA does so largely under 
the IRIS program. Other federal agencies develop quantitative estimates 
of noncancer effects or qualitative cancer assessments of exposure to 
chemicals in the environment. While these latter assessments provide 
information on the effects of long-term exposures to chemicals, they 
provide only qualitative assessments of cancer risks (known human 
carcinogen, likely human carcinogen, etc.) and not quantitative 
estimates of cancer potency, which are required to conduct quantitative 
risk assessments. 

EPA's IRIS assessment process has undergone a number of formal and 
informal changes during the past several years. While the process used 
to develop IRIS chemical assessments includes numerous individual steps 
or activities, major assessment steps include (1) a review of the 
scientific literature; (2) preparation of a draft IRIS assessment; (3) 
internal EPA reviews of draft assessments; (4) two OMB/interagency 
reviews, managed by OMB, that provide input from OMB as well as from 
other federal agencies, including those that may be affected by the 
IRIS assessments if they lead to regulatory or other actions; (5) an 
independent peer review conducted by a panel of experts; and (6) the 
completion of a final assessment that is posted to the IRIS Web site. 

Unlike many other EPA programs that have statutory requirements, 
including specific time frames for completing mandated tasks, the IRIS 
program is not subject to statutory requirements or timeframes. In 
contrast, the Department of Human Health and Services' Agency for Toxic 
Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), which develops quantitative 
estimates of the noncancer effects of exposures to chemicals in the 
environment, is statutorily required to complete its assessments within 
certain timeframes. 

Findings and Recommendations from Our March 2008 Report on the 
Productivity and Credibility of EPA's Integrated Risk Information 
System: 

The IRIS database is at serious risk of becoming obsolete because the 
agency has not been able to routinely complete timely, credible 
assessments or decrease a backlog of 70 ongoing assessments. 
Specifically, although EPA has taken important steps to improve the 
IRIS program and productivity since 2000 and has developed a number of 
draft assessments for external review, its efforts to finalize the 
assessments have been thwarted by a combination of factors including 
the imposition of external requirements, the growing complexity and 
scope of risk assessments, and certain EPA management decisions. In 
addition, the changes to the IRIS assessment process that EPA was 
considering at the time of our review would have added to the already 
unacceptable level of delays in completing IRIS assessments and further 
limited the credibility of the assessments. 

EPA's Efforts to Improve the IRIS Assessment Program Have Not Produced 
the Desired Results: 

EPA has taken a number of steps to help ensure that IRIS contains 
current, credible chemical risk information; to address its backlog of 
ongoing assessments; and to respond to new OMB requirements. However, 
to date, these changes--including increasing funding, centralizing 
staff conducting assessments, and revising the assessment process--have 
not enabled EPA to routinely complete credible IRIS assessments or 
decrease the backlog. That is, although EPA sent 32 draft assessments 
for external review in fiscal years 2006 and 2007, the agency finalized 
only 4 IRIS assessments during this time (see fig. 2). 

Figure 2: Number of Completed IRIS Assessments, Draft Assessments to 
OMB, and IRIS Staff in Full-Time Equivalents, Fiscal Years 2000-2007: 

[See PDF for image] 

This figure is a multiple line graph depicting the following data: 

Fiscal year: 2000; 
IRIS staff levels in full-time equivalents: 7.8; 
IRIS assessments completed: 5. 

Fiscal year: 2001; 
IRIS staff levels in full-time equivalents: 7.8; 
IRIS assessments completed: 5. 

Fiscal year: 2002; 
IRIS staff levels in full-time equivalents: 7.8; 
IRIS assessments completed: 3. 

Fiscal year: 2003; 
IRIS staff levels in full-time equivalents: 12.8; 
IRIS assessments completed: 11. 

Fiscal year: 2004 (Year OMB/Interagency review initiated); 
IRIS staff levels in full-time equivalents: 27; 
IRIS assessments completed: 4; 
Draft IRIS assessments to OMB for OMB/interagency review: 1. 

Fiscal year: 2005; 
IRIS staff levels in full-time equivalents: 37; 
IRIS assessments completed: 4; 
Draft IRIS assessments to OMB for OMB/interagency review: 5. 

Fiscal year: 2006; 
IRIS staff levels in full-time equivalents: 37; 
IRIS assessments completed: 2; 
Draft IRIS assessments to OMB for OMB/interagency review: 16. 

Fiscal year: 2007; 
IRIS staff levels in full-time equivalents: 37; 
IRIS assessments completed: 2; 
Draft IRIS assessments to OMB for OMB/interagency review: 16. 

Source: GAO analysis of EPA data. 

[End of figure] 

Several key factors have contributed to EPA's inability to achieve a 
level of productivity that is needed to sustain the IRIS program and 
database: new OMB-required reviews of IRIS assessments by OMB and other 
federal agencies; the growing complexity and scope of risk assessments; 
certain EPA management decisions and issues, including delaying 
completion of some assessments to await new research or to develop 
enhanced analyses of uncertainty in the assessments; and the 
compounding effect of delays. Regarding the last factor, even a single 
delay in the assessment process can lead to the need to essentially 
repeat the assessment process to take into account changes in science 
and methodologies. 

A variety of delays have impacted the majority of the 70 assessments 
being conducted as of December 2007--48 had been in process for more 
than 5 years, and 12 of those for more than 9 years. These time frames 
are problematic because of the substantial rework such cases often 
require to take into account changing science and methodologies before 
they can be completed. For example, EPA's assessment of the cancer 
risks stemming from exposure to naphthalene--a chemical used in jet 
fuel and in the production of widely used commercial products such as 
moth balls, dyes, insecticides, and plasticizers--was nearing 
completion in 2006. However, prior to finalizing this assessment, which 
had been ongoing for over 4 years, EPA decided that the existing 
noncancer assessment had become outdated and essentially restarted the 
assessment to include both cancer and noncancer effects. As a result, 6 
years after the naphthalene assessment began, it is now back at the 
drafting stage. The assessment now will need to reflect relevant 
research completed since the draft underwent initial external peer 
review in 2004, and it will have to undergo all of the IRIS assessment 
steps again, including the additional internal and external reviews 
that are now required (see app. I). 

Further, because EPA staff time continues to be dedicated to completing 
assessments in the backlog, EPA's ability to both keep the more than 
540 existing assessments up to date and initiate new assessments is 
limited. Importantly, EPA program offices and state and local entities 
have requested assessments of hundreds of chemicals not yet in IRIS, 
and EPA data as of 2003 indicated that the assessments of 287 chemicals 
in the database may be outdated--that is, new information could change 
the risk estimates currently in IRIS or enable EPA to develop 
additional risk estimates for chemicals in the database (for example, 
developing a cancer potency estimate for assessments with only 
noncancer estimates). In addition, because EPA's 2003 data are now more 
than 4 years old, it is likely that more assessments may be outdated 
now. 

The consequences of not having current, credible IRIS information can 
be significant. EPA's inability to complete its assessment of 
formaldehyde, which the agency initiated in 1997 to update information 
already in IRIS on the chemical, has had a significant impact on EPA's 
air toxics program. Although in 2003 and 2004, the National Cancer 
Institute and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health 
(NIOSH) had released updates to major epidemiological studies of 
industrial workers that showed a relationship between formaldehyde and 
certain cancers, including leukemia, EPA did not move forward to 
finalize an IRIS assessment incorporating these important data. 
Instead, EPA opted to await the results of another update to the 
National Cancer Institute study. While this additional research was 
originally estimated to take, at most, 18 months to complete, at the 
time of our report (more than 3 years later) the update was not 
complete. In the absence of this information, EPA's Office of Air and 
Radiation decided to use risk information developed by an industry- 
funded organization--the CIIT Centers for Health Research--for a 
national emissions standard. This decision was a factor in EPA 
exempting certain facilities with formaldehyde emissions from the 
national emissions standard. The CIIT risk estimate indicates a potency 
about 2,400 times lower than the estimate in IRIS that was being re- 
evaluated and that did not yet consider the 2003 and 2004 National 
Cancer Institute and NIOSH epidemiological studies. According to an EPA 
official, an IRIS cancer risk factor based on the 2003 and 2004 
National Cancer Institute and NIOSH studies would likely be close to 
the current IRIS assessment, which EPA has been re-evaluating since 
1997. The discrepancy between these two risk estimates raises concerns 
about whether the public health is adequately protected in the absence 
of current IRIS information. For example, in 1999, EPA published a 
national assessment that provided information about the types and 
amounts of air toxics to which people are exposed. The assessment, 
which also used the CIIT risk estimate for formaldehyde, concluded, for 
example, that formaldehyde did not contribute significantly to the 
overall cancer risk in the state of New Jersey. However, in carrying 
out its own risk assessment on formaldehyde, the New Jersey Department 
of Environmental Protection opted to use the risk information that is 
currently in IRIS (dating back to 1991) and found that the contribution 

from formaldehyde to overall cancer risk in New Jersey is quite 
significant, second only to diesel particulate matter. (App. I provides 
additional information on EPA's IRIS assessment for formaldehyde.) 

One of the factors that has contributed to EPA's inability to complete 
assessments in a timely manner--the new OMB-directed OMB/interagency 
review process--also limits the credibility of the assessments because 
it lacks transparency. Specifically, neither the comments nor the 
changes EPA makes to the scientific IRIS assessments in response to the 
comments made by OMB and other federal agencies, including those whose 
workload and resource levels could be affected by the assessments, are 
disclosed. In addition, the OMB/interagency reviews have hindered EPA's 
ability to independently manage its IRIS assessments. For example, 
without communicating its rationale for doing so, OMB directed EPA to 
terminate five IRIS assessments that for the first time addressed 
acute, rather than chronic exposure--even though EPA initiated this 
type of assessment to help it implement the Clean Air Act. 

The Expansion of Agencies' Roles in IRIS Assessments That EPA Was 
Considering at the Time of Our Review Would Have Caused Further Delays 
and Limited the Assessments' Credibility: 

For our March 2008 report, we reviewed the additional assessment 
process changes EPA was planning and concluded that they would likely 
exacerbate delays in completing IRIS assessments and further affect 
their credibility. Specifically, despite the OMB/interagency review 
process that OMB required EPA to incorporate into the IRIS assessment 
process in 2005, certain federal agencies continued to believe they 
should have greater and more formal roles in EPA's development of IRIS 
assessments. Consequently, EPA had been working for several years to 
establish a formal IRIS assessment process that would further expand 
the role of federal agencies in the process--including agencies such as 
DOD, which could be affected by the outcome of IRIS assessments. For 
example, some of these agencies and their contractors could face 
increased cleanup costs and other legal liabilities if EPA issued an 
IRIS assessment for a chemical that resulted in a decision to regulate 
the chemical to protect the public. In addition, the agencies could be 
required to, for example, redesign systems and processes to eliminate 
hazardous materials; develop material substitutes; and improve personal 
protective clothing, equipment, and procedures. Under the changes that 
EPA was planning at the time of our review, these potentially affected 
agencies would have the opportunity to be involved, or provide some 
form of input, at almost every step of EPA's IRIS assessment process. 
Most significantly, the changes would have provided federal agencies, 
including those facing potential regulatory liability, with several 
opportunities during the IRIS assessment process to subject particular 
chemicals of interest to additional process steps. These additional 
process steps, which would have lengthened assessment times 
considerably, include: 

* giving federal agencies and the public 45 days to identify additional 
information on a chemical for EPA's consideration in its assessment or 
to correct any errors on an additional assessment draft that would 
provide qualitative information;[Footnote 3] 

* giving potentially affected federal agencies 30 days to review the 
public comments EPA received and initiate a meeting with EPA if they 
want to discuss a particular set of comments; 

* allowing potentially affected federal agencies to have assessments 
suspended for up to 18 months to fill a data gap or eliminate an 
uncertainty factor that EPA plans to use in its assessment; and: 

* allowing other federal agencies to weigh in on (1) the level of 
independent peer review that would be sought (that is, whether the peer 
reviews would be conducted by EPA Science Advisory Board panels, 
National Academies' panels, or panels organized by an EPA contractor); 
(2) the areas of scientific expertise needed on the panel; and (3) the 
scope of the peer reviews and the specific issues they would address. 

EPA estimated that assessments that undergo these additional process 
steps would take up to 6 years to complete. While it is important to 
ensure that assessments consider the best science, EPA has acknowledged 
that waiting for new data can result in substantial harm to human 
health, safety, and the environment. Further, although coordination 
with other federal agencies about IRIS assessments could enhance their 
quality,[Footnote 4] increasing the role of agencies that may be 
affected by IRIS assessments in the process itself reduces the 
credibility of the assessments if that expanded role is not 
transparent. In this regard, while EPA's proposed changes would have 
allowed for including federal agencies' comments in the public record, 
the implementation of this proposal was delayed for a year, in part, 
because of OMB's view that agencies' comments about IRIS assessments 
represent internal executive branch communications that may not be made 
public--a view that is inconsistent with the principle of sound 
science, which relies on, among other things, transparency. (App. II 
and III provide flow charts of the IRIS process that was in place at 
the time of our review and EPA's draft proposed process being 
considered at the time of our review, respectively). 

Recommendations Made in Our March 2008 Report: 

To address the productivity and credibility issues we identified, we 
recommended that the EPA Administrator require the Office of Research 
and Development to re-evaluate its draft proposed changes to the IRIS 
assessment process in light of the issues raised in our report and 
ensure that any revised process, among other things, clearly defines 
and documents an IRIS assessment process that will enable the agency to 
develop the timely chemical risk information it needs to effectively 
conduct its mission. One of our recommendations--that EPA provide at 
least 2 years' notice of IRIS assessments that are planned--would, 
among other things, provide an efficient alternative to suspending 
assessments while waiting for new research because interested parties 
would have the opportunity to conduct research before assessments are 
started. 

In addition, we recommended that the EPA Administrator take steps to 
better ensure that EPA has the ability to develop transparent, credible 
IRIS assessments--an ability that relies in large part on EPA's 
independence in conducting these important assessments. Actions that 
are key to this ability include ensuring that EPA can (1) determine the 
types of assessments it needs to support EPA programs and (2) define 
the appropriate role of external federal agencies in EPA's IRIS 
assessment process, and (3) manage an interagency review process in a 
manner that enhances the quality, transparency, timeliness, and 
credibility of IRIS assessments. In its February 21, 2008, letter 
providing comments on our draft report, EPA said it would consider each 
of our recommendations in light of the new IRIS process the agency was 
developing. 

Key Aspects of the Revised IRIS Assessment Process Implemented in April 
2008 Which Is Not Responsive to GAO's Recommendations: 

On April 10, 2008, EPA issued a revised IRIS assessment process, 
effective immediately. Overall, EPA's revised process is not responsive 
to the recommendations made in our March 2008 report--it is largely the 
same as the draft proposed process we evaluated in our March 2008 
report (see app. III and IV). Moreover, changes EPA did incorporate 
into the final process are likely to further exacerbate the 
productivity and credibility issues we identified in our report. 

* We recommended that EPA ensure that, among other things, any revised 
process clearly defines and documents a streamlined IRIS assessment 
process that can be conducted within time frames that minimize the need 
for wasteful rework. 

As discussed in our report, when assessments take longer than 2 years, 
they can become subject to substantial delays stemming from the need to 
redo key analyses to take into account changing science and assessment 
methodologies. However, EPA's revised process institutionalizes a 
process that the agency estimates will take up to 6 years to complete. 
Further, the estimated time frames do not factor in the time for peer 
reviews conducted by the National Academies, which can take 2 years to 
plan and complete.[Footnote 5] EPA typically uses reviews by the 
National Academies for highly controversial chemicals or complex 
assessments. Therefore, assessments of key chemicals of concern to 
public health that are reviewed by the National Academies are likely to 
take at least 8 years to complete. These time frames must also be 
considered in light of OMB's view that health assessment values in IRIS 
are out of date if they are more than 10 years old and if new 
scientific information exists that could change the health assessment 
values. Thus, EPA's new process institutionalizes time frames that 
could essentially require the agency to start assessment updates as 
soon as 2 years after assessments are finalized in order to keep the 
IRIS database current. Such time frames are not consistent with our 
recommendation that EPA develop, clearly define, and document a 
streamlined IRIS process that can be conducted within time frames that 
minimize the need for wasteful rework. Further, the agency would need a 
significant increase in resources to support such an assessment cycle. 

In addition, EPA had previously emphasized that, in suspending 
assessments to allow agencies to fill in data gaps, it would allow no 
more than 18 months to complete the studies and have them peer 
reviewed. However, under the new process, EPA states that it generally 
will allow no more than 18 months to complete the studies and have them 
peer reviewed. As we concluded in our report, we believe the ability to 
suspend assessments for up to 18 months would add to the already 
unacceptable level of delays in completing IRIS assessments. Further, 
we and several agency officials with whom we spoke believe that the 
time needed to plan, conduct, and complete research that would address 
significant data gaps, and have it peer reviewed, would likely exceed 
18 months. Therefore, the less rigid time frame EPA included in its new 
process could result in additional delays. 

Finally, the new process expands the scope of one of the additional 
steps that initially was to apply only to chemicals of particular 
interest to federal agencies.[Footnote 6] Specifically, under the draft 
process we reviewed, EPA would have provided an additional review and 
comment opportunity for federal agencies and the public for what EPA 
officials said would be a small group of chemicals. However, under 
EPA's new process, this additional step has been added to the 
assessment process for all chemicals and, therefore, will add time to 
the already lengthy assessments of all chemicals. 

* We also recommended that the EPA Administrator take steps to better 
ensure that EPA has the ability to develop transparent, credible IRIS 
assessments--an ability that relies in large part on EPA's independence 
in conducting these important assessments. 

Contrary to our recommendation, EPA has formalized a revised IRIS 
process that is selectively, rather than fully, transparent, limiting 
the credibility of the assessments. Specifically, while the draft 
process we reviewed provided that comments on IRIS assessments from OMB 
and other federal agencies would be part of the public record, under 
the recently implemented process, comments from federal agencies are 
expressly defined as "deliberative" and will not be included in the 
public record.[Footnote 7] Given the importance and sensitivity of IRIS 
assessments, we believe it is critical that input from all parties, 
particularly agencies that may be affected by the outcome of IRIS 
assessments, be publicly available. However, under EPA's new process, 
input from some IRIS assessment reviewers--representatives of federal 
agencies, including those facing potential regulatory liability, and 
private stakeholders associated with these agencies--will continue to 
receive less public scrutiny than comments from all others. 

In commenting on a draft of our March 2008 report, and in a recent 
congressional hearing, EPA's Assistant Administrator, Office of 
Research and Development, stated that the IRIS process is transparent 
because all final IRIS assessments must undergo public and external 
peer review. However, as we stated in our report, the presence of 
transparency at a later stage of IRIS assessment development does not 
explain or excuse its absence earlier. Under the new process, neither 
peer reviewers nor the public are privy to the changes EPA makes in 
response to the comments OMB and other federal agencies provide to EPA 
at several stages in the assessment process--changes to draft 
assessments or to the questions EPA poses to the peer review panels. 
Importantly, the first IRIS assessment draft that is released to peer 
reviewers and to the public includes the undisclosed input from federal 
agencies potentially subject to regulation and therefore with an 
interest in minimizing the impacts of IRIS assessments on their budgets 
and operations. 

In addition, EPA's revised process does not provide EPA with sufficient 
independence in developing IRIS assessments to ensure they are credible 
and transparent. We made several recommendations aimed at restoring 
EPA's independence. For example, we recommended that the EPA 
Administrator ensure that EPA has the ability to, among other things, 
define the appropriate role of external federal agencies in the IRIS 
assessment process and determine when interagency issues have been 
appropriately addressed. However, under the newly implemented IRIS 
assessment process, OMB continues to inform EPA when EPA has adequately 
addressed OMB's and interagency comments. This determination must be 
made both before EPA can provide draft assessments to external peer 
reviewers and to the public and before EPA can finalize and post 
assessments on the IRIS database. While EPA officials state that 
ultimately IRIS assessments reflect EPA decisions, the new process does 
not support this assertion given the clearances EPA needs to receive 
from OMB to move forward at key stages. In fact, we believe the new 
IRIS assessment process may elevate the goal of reaching interagency 
agreement above achieving IRIS program objectives. Further, as 
discussed above, because the negotiations over OMB/interagency comments 
are not disclosed, whether EPA is entirely responsible for the content 
of information on IRIS is open to question. 

In our report, we also emphasized the importance of ensuring that IRIS 
assessments be based solely on science issues and not policy concerns. 
However, under the new IRIS assessment process, EPA has further 
introduced policy considerations into the IRIS assessment process. That 
is, the newly implemented IRIS assessment process broadens EPA's 
characterization of IRIS assessments from "the agency's scientific 
positions on human health effects that may result from exposure to 
environmental contaminants" to "the agency's science and science policy 
positions" on such effects. EPA's new, broader characterization of IRIS 
raises concerns about the agency's stated intent to ensure that 
scientific assessments are appropriately based on the best available 
science and that they are not inappropriately impacted by policy issues 
and considerations. For example, in discussing science and science 
policy at a recent Senate hearing, EPA's Assistant Administrator of 
Research and Development described science policy considerations as 
including decisions about filling knowledge gaps (e.g., whether and to 
what extent to use default assumptions) and assessing weight-of-the- 
evidence approaches to make scientific inferences or assumptions. We 
believe that these are scientific decisions that should reflect the 
best judgment of EPA scientists who are evaluating the data, using the 
detailed risk assessment guidance the agency has developed for such 
purposes. We have concerns about the manner and extent to which other 
federal agencies, including those that may be affected by the outcome 
of assessments, are involved in these decisions as well as the lack of 
transparency of their input. As we highlighted earlier, under the 
National Academies' risk assessment and risk management paradigm, 
policy considerations are relevant in the risk management phase--which 
occurs after the risk assessment phase that encompasses IRIS 
assessments. The National Academies recently addressed this issue as 
follows: "The committee believes that risk assessors and risk managers 
should talk with each other; that is, a 'conceptual distinction' does 
not mean establishing a wall between risk assessors and risk managers. 
Indeed they should have constant interaction. However, the dialogue 
should not bias or otherwise color the risk assessment conducted, and 
the activities should remain distinct; that is, risk assessors should 
not be performing risk management activities."[Footnote 8] 

Concluding Observations: 

The new IRIS assessment process that EPA implemented in April 2008 will 
not allow the agency to routinely and timely complete credible 
assessments. In fact, it will exacerbate the problems we identified in 
our March 2008 report and sought to address with our recommendations-- 
all of which were aimed at preserving the viability of this critical 
database, which is integral to EPA's mission of protecting the public 
and the environment from exposure to toxic chemicals. Specifically, 
under the new process, assessment time frames will be significantly 
lengthened, and the lack of transparency will further limit the 
credibility of the assessments because input from OMB and other 
agencies at all stages of the IRIS assessment process is now expressly 
defined as deliberative and therefore not subject to public disclosure. 
The position of the Assistant Administrator, Office of Research and 
Development, that the IRIS process is transparent because all final 
IRIS assessments must undergo public and external peer review is 
unconvincing. Transparency at a later stage of the IRIS assessment 
process--after OMB and other federal agencies have had multiple 
opportunities to influence the content of the assessment without any 
disclosure of their input--does not compensate for its absence earlier. 

We continue to believe that to effectively maintain IRIS EPA must 
streamline its lengthy assessment process and adopt transparency 
practices that provide assurance that IRIS assessments are 
appropriately based on the best available science and that they are not 
inappropriately biased by policy issues and considerations. As 
discussed in our April 29, 2008, testimony before the Senate 
Environment and Public Works Committee, we believe that the Congress 
should consider requiring EPA to suspend implementation of its new IRIS 
assessment process and develop a streamlined process that is 
transparent and otherwise responsive to our recommendations aimed at 
improving the timeliness and credibility of IRIS assessments.[Footnote 
9] For example, suspending assessments to obtain additional research is 
inefficient; alternatively, with longer-term planning, EPA could 
provide agencies and the public with more advance notice of 
assessments, enabling them to complete relevant research before IRIS 
assessments are started. 

In addition, as discussed in our April 2008 testimony, the Congress 
should consider requiring EPA to obtain and be responsive to input from 
the Congress and the public before finalizing a revised IRIS assessment 
process. We note that while EPA and OMB initially had planned for EPA 
to release a draft revised IRIS assessment process to the public, hold 
a public meeting to discuss EPA's proposed changes, and seek and 
incorporate public input before finalizing the process, EPA released 
its new assessment process without obtaining public input and made it 
effective immediately. This was inconsistent with assertions made in 
OMB's letter commenting on our draft report, which emphasized that EPA 
had not completed the development of the IRIS assessment process and 
stated: "Indeed, the process will not be complete until EPA circulates 
its draft to the public for comments and then releases a final product 
that is responsive to those comments.": 

Finally, if EPA is not able to take the steps we have recommended to 
effectively maintain this critical program, other approaches, including 
statutory requirements, may need to be explored. 

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my prepared statement. I would be happy to 
respond to any questions that you or other Members of the Subcommittee 
may have at this time. 

Contacts and Acknowledgments: 

For further information about this testimony, please contact John B. 
Stephenson on (202) 512-3841 or [email protected]. Contact points for 
our Congressional Relations and Public Affairs Offices may be found on 
the last page of this statement. Contributors to this testimony include 
Christine Fishkin (Assistant Director), Laura Gatz, Richard P. Johnson, 
and Nancy Crothers. 

[End of section] 

Appendix I: Examples of Key IRIS Assessments That Have Been Delayed: 

Some key IRIS assessments have been in progress for a number of years, 
in part because of delays stemming from one or more of the key factors 
we identified that have hindered EPA's productivity.[Footnote 10] 
Examples include the following: 

Naphthalene. EPA started the IRIS assessment of cancer risks stemming 
from the inhalation of naphthalene in 2002. Naphthalene is used in jet 
fuel and in the production of widely used commercial products such as 
moth balls, dyes, insecticides, and plasticizers. According to a 
presentation delivered at the 2007 annual meeting of the Society for 
Risk Analysis by an Army Corps of Engineers toxicologist,[Footnote 11] 
"The changing naphthalene regulatory environment includes a draft EPA 
risk assessment that if/when finalized, will change naphthalene's 
status from 'possible' to 'likely' human carcinogen."[Footnote 12] 
Thus, according to this presentation, one potential impact of this IRIS 
assessment on DOD is that DOD would need to provide many employees 
exposed to naphthalene with equipment measuring their exposure to the 
chemical. In addition, because many military bases are contaminated 
with naphthalene, a component of jet fuel (approximately 1 percent to 3 
percent) used by all DOD services, DOD could face extensive cleanup 
costs. By 2004, 2 years after starting the assessment, EPA had drafted 
a chemical assessment that had completed internal peer reviews and was 
about to be sent to an external peer review committee. Once it returned 
from external review, the next step, at that time, would have been a 
formal review by EPA's IRIS Agency Review Committee. If approved, the 
assessment would have been completed and released. However, in part 
because of concerns raised by DOD, OMB asked to review the assessment 
and conducted an interagency review of the draft. In their 2004 reviews 
of the draft IRIS assessment, both OMB and DOD raised a number of 
concerns about the assessment and suggested to EPA that it be suspended 
until additional research could be completed to address what they 
considered to be significant uncertainties associated with the 
assessment. Although all of the issues raised by OMB and DOD were not 
resolved, EPA continued with its assessment by submitting the draft for 
external peer review, which was completed in September 2004.[Footnote 
13] However, according to EPA, OMB continued to object to the draft 
IRIS assessment and directed EPA to convene an additional expert review 
panel on genotoxicity to obtain recommendations about short-term tests 
that OMB thought could be done quickly.[Footnote 14] According to EPA, 
this added 6 months to the process, and the panel, which met in April 
2005, concluded that the research that OMB was proposing could not be 
conducted in the short term. Nonetheless, EPA officials said that the 
second expert panel review did not eliminate OMB's concerns regarding 
the assessment, which they described as reaching a stalemate. In 
September 2006, EPA decided, however, to proceed with developing the 
assessment. By this time, the naphthalene assessment had been in 
progress for over 4 years; EPA decided that the IRIS noncancer 
assessment, issued in 1998, was outdated and needed to be revisited. 
Thus, EPA expanded the IRIS naphthalene assessment to include both 
noncancer and cancer assessments. As a result, 6 years after the 
naphthalene assessment began, it is now back at the drafting stage. The 
assessment now will need to reflect relevant research completed since 
the draft underwent initial external peer review in 2004, and it will 
have to undergo all of the IRIS assessment steps again, including 
additional internal and external reviews that are now required. This 
series of delays has limited EPA's ability to conduct its mission. For 
example, the Office of Air and Radiation has identified the naphthalene 
assessment as one of its highest-priority needs for its air toxics 
program. In addition, the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response 
considers the naphthalene assessment a high priority for the Superfund 
program--naphthalene has been found in at least 654 of Superfund's 
current or former National Priorities List sites.[Footnote 15] Although 
EPA currently estimates that it will complete the assessment in 2009, 
meeting this revised estimate will be challenging, given all of the 
steps that are yet to be completed and the extensive external scrutiny 
to which it will continue to be subjected. 

Royal Demolition Explosive. This chemical, also called RDX or hexahydro-
1,3,5-trinitrotriazine, is a highly powerful explosive used by the U.S. 
military in thousands of munitions. Currently classified by EPA as a 
possible human carcinogen, this chemical is known to leach from soil to 
groundwater. Royal Demolition Explosive can cause seizures in humans 
and animals when large amounts are inhaled or ingested, but the effects 
of long-term, low-level exposure on the nervous system are unknown. As 
is the case with naphthalene, the IRIS assessment could potentially 
require DOD to undertake a number of actions, including steps to 
protect its employees from the effects of this chemical and to clean up 
many contaminated sites. Although EPA started an IRIS assessment of 
Royal Demolition Explosive in 2000, it has made minimal progress on the 
assessment because EPA agreed to a request by DOD to wait for the 
results of DOD-sponsored research on this chemical. In 2007, EPA began 
to actively work on this assessment, although some of the DOD-sponsored 
research is still outstanding. 

Formaldehyde. EPA began an IRIS assessment of formaldehyde in 1997 
because the existing assessment was determined to be outdated.[Footnote 
16] Formaldehyde is a colorless, flammable, strong-smelling gas used to 
manufacture building materials, such as pressed wood products, and used 
in many household products, including paper, pharmaceuticals, and 
leather goods. While EPA currently classifies formaldehyde as a 
probable human carcinogen, the International Agency for Research on 
Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization, classifies 
formaldehyde as a known human carcinogen. Since 1986, studies of 
industrial of workers have suggested that formaldehyde exposure is 
associated with nasopharyngeal cancer, and possibly with leukemia. For 
example, in 2003 and 2004, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the 
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) released 
epidemiological studies following up on earlier studies tracking about 
26,000 and 11,000 industrial workers, respectively, exposed to 
formaldehyde; the updates showed exposure to formaldehyde might also 
cause leukemia in humans, in addition to the cancer types previously 
identified. According to NCI officials, the key findings in their 
follow-up study were an increase in leukemia deaths and, more 
significantly, an exposure/response relationship between formaldehyde 
and leukemia--as exposure increased, the incidence of leukemia also 
rose. As with the earlier study, NCI found more cases of a rare form of 
cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, than would usually be expected. The 
studies from NCI and NIOSH were published in 2003 and 2004,[Footnote 
17] around the time that EPA was still drafting its IRIS assessment. In 
November 2004, the Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works 
Committee requested that EPA delay completion of its IRIS assessment 
until an update to the just-released NCI study could be conducted, 
indicating that the effort would take, at most, 18 months. EPA agreed 
to wait--and more than 3 years later, the NCI update is not yet 
complete. As of December 2007, NCI estimates that the study will be 
completed in two stages, one in mid-2008 and the second one later that 
year. An NCI official said that the additional leukemia deaths 
identified in the update provide "greater power" to detect associations 
between exposure to formaldehyde and cancer. EPA's inability to 
complete the IRIS assessment it started more than 10 years ago in a 
timely manner has had a significant impact on EPA's air toxics program. 
Specifically, when EPA promulgated a national emissions standard for 
hazardous air pollutants covering facilities in the plywood and 
composite wood industries in 2004, EPA's Office of Air and Radiation 
took the unusual step of not using the existing IRIS estimate but 
rather decided to use a cancer risk estimate developed by an industry- 
funded organization, the CIIT Centers for Health Research (formerly, 
the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology) that had been used by 
the Canadian health protection agency. The IRIS cancer risk factor had 
been subject to criticism because it was last revised in 1991 and was 
based on data from the 1980s. In its final rule, EPA stated that "the 
dose-response value in IRIS is based on a 1987 study, and no longer 
represents the best available science in the peer-reviewed literature." 
The CIIT quantitative cancer risk estimate that EPA used in its health 
risk assessment in the plywood and composite wood national emissions 
standard indicates a potency about 2,400 times lower than the estimate 
in IRIS that was being re-evaluated and that did not yet consider the 
2003 and 2004 NCI and NIOSH epidemiological studies. According to an 
EPA official, an IRIS cancer risk factor based on the 2003 and 2004 NCI 
and NIOSH studies would likely be close to the current IRIS assessment, 
which EPA has been attempting to update since 1997. The decision to use 
the CIIT assessment in the plywood national emissions standard was 
controversial, and officials in EPA's National Center for Environmental 
Assessment said the center identified numerous problems with the CIIT 
estimate. Nonetheless, the Office of Air and Radiation used the CIIT 
value, and that decision was a factor in EPA exempting certain 
facilities with formaldehyde emissions from the national emissions 
standard. In June 2007, a federal appellate court struck down the rule, 
holding that EPA's decision to exempt certain facilities that EPA 
asserted presented a low health risk exceeded the agency's authority 
under the Clean Air Act.[Footnote 18] Further, the continued delays of 
the IRIS assessment of formaldehyde--currently estimated to be 
completed in 2010 but after almost 11 years still in the draft 
development stage--will impact the quality of other EPA regulatory 
actions, including other air toxics rules and requirements. 

Trichloroethylene. Also known as TCE, this chemical is a solvent widely 
used as a degreasing agent in industrial and manufacturing settings; it 
is a common environmental contaminant in air, soil, surface water, and 
groundwater. TCE has been linked to cancer, including childhood cancer, 
and other significant health hazards, such as birth defects. TCE is the 
most frequently reported organic contaminant in groundwater, and 
contaminated drinking water has been found at Camp Lejeune, a large 
Marine Corps base in North Carolina. TCE has also been found at 
Superfund sites and at many industrial and government facilities, 
including aircraft and spacecraft manufacturing operations. In 1995, 
the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified TCE as a 
probable human carcinogen, and in 2000, the Department of Health and 
Human Services' National Toxicology Program concluded that it is 
reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen. Because of questions 
raised by peer reviewers about the IRIS cancer assessment for TCE, EPA 
withdrew it from IRIS in 1989 but did not initiate a new TCE cancer 
assessment until 1998. In 2001, EPA issued a draft IRIS assessment for 
TCE that proposed a range of toxicity values indicating a higher 
potency than in the prior IRIS values and characterizing TCE as "highly 
likely to produce cancer in humans." The draft assessment, which became 
controversial, was peer reviewed by EPA's Scientific Advisory Board and 
released for public comment. A number of scientific issues were raised 
during the course of these reviews, including how EPA had applied 
emerging risk assessment methods--such as assessing cumulative effects 
(of TCE and its metabolites) and using a physiologically based 
pharmacokinetic model--and the uncertainty associated with the new 
methods themselves.[Footnote 19] To help address these issues, EPA, 
DOD, DOE, and NASA sponsored a National Academies review to provide 
guidance. The National Academies report, which was issued in 2006, 
concluded that the weight of evidence of cancer and other health risks 
from TCE exposure had strengthened since 2001 and recommended that the 
risk assessment be finalized with currently available data so that risk 
management decisions could be made expeditiously. The report 
specifically noted that while some additional information would allow 
for more precise estimates of risk, this information was not necessary 
for developing a credible risk assessment. Nonetheless, 10 years after 
EPA started its IRIS assessment, the TCE assessment is back at the 
draft development stage. EPA estimates this assessment will be 
finalized in 2010. More in line with the National Academies' 
recommendation to act expeditiously, five senators introduced a bill in 
August 2007 that, among other things, would require EPA to both 
establish IRIS values for TCE and issue final drinking water standards 
for this contaminant within 18 months. 

Tetrachloroethylene. EPA started an IRIS assessment of 
tetrachloroethylene--also called perchloroethylene or "perc"--in 1998. 
Tetrachloroethylene is a manufactured chemical widely used for dry 
cleaning of fabrics, metal degreasing, and making some consumer 
products and other chemicals. Tetrachloroethylene is a widespread 
groundwater contaminant, and the Department of Health and Human 
Services' National Toxicology Program has determined that it is 
reasonably anticipated to be a carcinogen. The IRIS database currently 
contains a 1988 noncancer assessment based on oral exposure that will 
be updated in the ongoing assessment. Importantly, the ongoing 
assessment will also provide a noncancer inhalation risk and a cancer 
assessment. The IRIS agency review of the draft assessment was 
completed in February 2005, the draft assessment was sent to OMB for 
OMB/interagency review in September 2005, and the OMB/interagency 
review was completed in March 2006. EPA had determined to have the next 
step, external peer review, conducted by the National Academies--the 
peer review choice reserved for chemical assessments that are 
particularly significant or controversial. EPA contracted with the 
National Academies for a review by an expert panel, and the review was 
scheduled to start in June 2006 and be completed in 15 months. However, 
as of December 2007, the draft assessment had not yet been provided to 
the National Academies. After verbally agreeing with both the noncancer 
and cancer assessments following briefings on the assessments, the 
Assistant Administrator, Office of Research and Development, 
subsequently requested that additional uncertainty analyses--including 
some quantitative analyses--be conducted and included in the assessment 
before the draft was released to the National Academies for peer 
review. As discussed in our March 2008 report on IRIS [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-440], quantitative uncertainty 
analysis is a risk assessment tool that is currently being developed, 
and although the agency is working on developing policies and 
procedures for uncertainty analysis, such guidance currently does not 
exist. The draft tetrachloroethylene assessment has been delayed since 
early 2006 as EPA staff have gone back and forth with the Assistant 
Administrator trying to reach agreement on key issues such as whether a 
linear or nonlinear model is most appropriate for the cancer assessment 
and how uncertainty should be qualitatively and quantitatively 
characterized. EPA officials and staff noted that some of the most 
experienced staff are being used for these efforts, limiting their 
ability to work on other IRIS assessments. In addition, the significant 
delay has impacted the planned National Academies peer review because 
the current contract, which has already been extended once, cannot be 
extended beyond December 2008. The peer review was initially estimated 
to take 15 months. As a result, a new contract and the appointment of 
another panel may be required. 

Dioxin. The dioxin assessment is an example of an IRIS assessment that 
has been, and will likely continue to be, a political as well as a 
scientific issue. Often the byproducts of combustion and other 
industrial processes, complex mixtures of dioxins enter the food chain 
and human diet through emissions into the air that settle on soil, 
plants, and water. EPA's initial dioxin assessment, published in 1985, 
focused on the dioxin TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) 
because animal studies in the 1970s showed it to be the most potent 
cancer-causing chemical studied to date. Several years later, EPA 
decided to conduct a reassessment of dioxin because of major advances 
that had occurred in the scientific understanding of dioxin toxicity 
and significant new studies on dioxins' potential adverse health 
effects. Initially started in 1991, this assessment has involved 
repeated literature searches and peer reviews. For example, a draft of 
the updated assessment was reviewed by a scientific peer review panel 
in 1995, and three panels reviewed key segments of later versions of 
the draft in 1997 and 2000. In 2002, EPA officials said that the 
assessment would conclude that dioxin may adversely affect human health 
at lower exposure levels than had previously been thought and that most 
exposure to dioxins occurs from eating such American dietary staples as 
meats, fish, and dairy products, which contain minute traces of 
dioxins. These foods contain dioxins because animals eat plants and 
commercial feed and drink water contaminated with dioxins, which then 
accumulate in animals' fatty tissue. It is clear that EPA's dioxin risk 
assessment could have a potentially significant impact on consumers and 
on the food and agriculture industries. As EPA moved closer to 
finalizing the assessment, in 2003 the agency was directed in a 
congressional appropriations conference committee report to not issue 
the assessment until it had been reviewed by the National Academies. 
The National Academies provided EPA with a report in July 2006. In 
developing a response to the report, which the agency is currently 
doing, EPA must include new studies and risk assessment approaches that 
did not exist when the assessment was drafted. EPA officials said the 
assessment will be subject to the IRIS review process once its response 
to the National Academies' report is drafted. As of 2008, EPA has been 
developing the dioxin assessment, which has potentially significant 
health implications for all Americans, for 17 years. 

[End of section] 

Appendix II: EPA's IRIS Assessment Process Being Implemented at the 
Time of Our Review (Includes OMB Requirements as of 2005): 

This appendix contains a figure that is an illustration of a flowchart 
of EPA's IRIS Assessment Process, as follows: 

1) Annual request for nomination of IRIS chemicals for assessment. 

2) Determine the annual agenda and publish it in the Federal Register, 
along with a call for scientific information from the public on select 
chemicals. 

3) Scientific literature search. 

4) Development of a complete draft IRIS assessment (qualitative and 
quantitative), including internal peer consultation. 

5) Internal agency review by the 18-member IRIS Agency Review 
Committee. 

6) Revised draft IRIS assessment. 

7) OMB/interagency review coordinated by OMB. 

8) Revised draft IRIS assessment. 

9) Independent external peer review and public comment. 

10) Revised draft IRIS assessment. 

11a) Second internal agency review by the 18-member IRIS Agency Review 
Committee. 

11b) Second OMB/interagency review coordinated by OMB. 

[Both 11a and 11b may lead to an additional revised draft IRIS 
assessment before the final step.] 

12) Completion of IRIS assessment, EPA management review and approval, 
and posting on IRIS. 

Source: GAO analysis of EPA information. 

[End of section] 

Appendix III: EPA's Draft Proposed IRIS Assessment Process Being 
Considered at the Time of Our Review (Dated March 2007): 

This appendix contains a figure that is an illustration of a flowchart 
of EPA's Draft Proposed IRIS Assessment Process, as follows: 

1) Annual request for nomination of IRIS chemicals for assessment 
(step where EPA has provided additional opportunity for input from 
potentially affected federal agencies for all chemicals); 

2) Determine the annual agenda and publish it in the Federal Register 
(step where EPA has provided additional opportunity for input from 
potentially affected federal agencies for all chemicals); 

3) Scientific literature search; 

4) Federal Register notice/data call-in (step where EPA has provided 
additional opportunity for input from potentially affected federal 
agencies for all chemicals); 

5) Development of a draft qualitative assessment; 

6) Is the chemical mission critical? If yes, proceed to step 7; if no, 
proceed to step 12; 

7) Public review of draft qualitative assessment (additional step, 
under EPAï¿½s planned changes, to its assessment process and steps where 
EPA has provided additional opportunity for input from potentially 
affected federal agencies for mission-critical chemicals); 

8) Review of public comments (additional step, under EPAï¿½s planned 
changes, to its assessment process and steps where EPA has provided 
additional opportunity for input from potentially affected federal 
agencies for mission-critical chemicals); 

9) Interagency evaluation to close data gaps (additional step, under 
EPAï¿½s planned changes, to its assessment process and steps where EPA 
has provided additional opportunity for input from potentially affected 
federal agencies for mission-critical chemicals); 

10) Is there interest in conducting research to close data gaps? If 
yes, proceed to step 11; if no proceed to step 12; 

11) Federal agency development of new studies; (additional step, under 
EPAï¿½s planned changes, to its assessment process and steps where EPA 
has provided additional opportunity for input from potentially affected 
federal agencies for mission-critical chemicals); 

12) Development of a complete draft IRIS assessment (qualitative and 
quantitative), including internal peer consultation; 

13) Is the chemical mission critical? If yes, proceed to step 14a; if 
no, proceed to step 14b; 

14a) EPA consults with federal agencies to determine level and scope of 
peer review (additional step, under EPAï¿½s planned changes, to its 
assessment process and steps where EPA has provided additional 
opportunity for input from potentially affected federal agencies for 
mission-critical chemicals); 

14b) EPA determines the level and scope of the peer review; 

15) Internal agency review by the 18-member IRIS Agency Review 
Committee; 

16) Revised draft IRIS assessment (may require a return to step 15); 

17) OMB/interagency review coordinated by OMB (step where potentially 
affected federal agencies already had an opportunity for input); 

18) Revised draft IRIS assessment (may require a return to step 17); 

19) Independent external peer review and public comment (step where 
potentially affected federal agencies already had an opportunity for 
input); 

20) Revised draft IRIS assessment; 

21a) Second internal agency review by the 18-member IRIS Agency Review 
Committee (may require a return to step 20); 

21b) Second OMB/interagency review coordinated by OMB (may require a 
return to step 20); (step where potentially affected federal agencies 
already had an opportunity for input); 

22) Completion of IRIS assessment, EPA management review and approval, 
and posting on IRIS. 

Source: GAO analysis of EPA information. 

[End of section] 

Appendix IV: EPA's IRIS Assessment Process as of April 10, 2008: 

This appendix contains a figure that is an illustration of a flowchart 
of EPA's IRIS Assessment Process, as follows: 

1) Annual request for nomination of IRIS chemicals for assessment 
(step where EPA has provided additional opportunity for input from 
potentially affected federal agencies for all chemicals); 

2) Determine the annual agenda and publish it in the Federal Register 
(step where EPA has provided additional opportunity for input from 
potentially affected federal agencies for all chemicals); 

3) Scientific literature search; 

4) Federal Register notice/data call-in (step where EPA has provided 
additional opportunity for input from potentially affected federal 
agencies for all chemicals); 

5) Development of a draft qualitative assessment; 

6) Federal agency and public review of draft qualitative assessment 
(step where EPA has provided additional opportunity for input from 
potentially affected federal agencies for all chemicals); 

7) EPA and federal agency review of comments (step where EPA has 
provided additional opportunity for input from potentially affected 
federal agencies for all chemicals); 

8) Is the chemical mission critical? If yes, proceed to step 9; if no 
proceed to step 12; 

9) Interagency evaluation to close data gaps (additional step, under 
EPAï¿½s planned changes, to its assessment process and steps where EPA 
has provided additional opportunity for input from potentially affected 
federal agencies for mission-critical chemicals); 

10) Is there interest in conducting research to close data gaps? If 
yes, proceed to step 11; if no proceed to step 12; 

11) Federal agency development of new studies; (additional step, under 
EPAï¿½s planned changes, to its assessment process and steps where EPA 
has provided additional opportunity for input from potentially affected 
federal agencies for mission-critical chemicals); 

12) Development of a complete draft IRIS assessment (qualitative and 
quantitative), including internal peer consultation; 

13) Is the chemical mission critical? If yes, proceed to step 14a; if 
no, proceed to step 14b; 

14a) EPA consults with federal agencies to determine level and scope of 
peer review (additional step, under EPAï¿½s planned changes, to its 
assessment process and steps where EPA has provided additional 
opportunity for input from potentially affected federal agencies for 
mission-critical chemicals); 

14b) EPA determines the level and scope of the peer review; 

15) Internal agency review by the 18-member IRIS Agency Review 
Committee; 

16) Revised draft IRIS assessment (may require a return to step 15); 

17) OMB/interagency review coordinated by OMB (step where potentially 
affected federal agencies already had an opportunity for input); 

18) Revised draft IRIS assessment (may require a return to step 17); 

19) Independent external peer review and public comment (step where 
potentially affected federal agencies already had an opportunity for 
input); 

20) Revised draft IRIS assessment; 

21a) Second internal agency review by the 18-member IRIS Agency Review 
Committee (may require a return to step 20); 

21b) Second OMB/interagency review coordinated by OMB (may require a 
return to step 20); (step where potentially affected federal agencies 
already had an opportunity for input); 

22) Completion of IRIS assessment, EPA management review and approval, 
and posting on IRIS. 

Source: GAO analysis of EPA information. 

[End of section] 

Footnotes: 

[1] The National Academies comprises four organizations: the National 
Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute 
of Medicine, and the National Research Council. 

[2] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-440] 
(Washington, D.C.: Mar. 7, 2008). 

[3] This represents an additional review of a new draft product and 
comment period that had not existed previously. As shown in app. II, 
the assessment process EPA used at the time of our review included 
publishing its annual IRIS assessment agenda in the Federal Register 
and soliciting relevant scientific information from the public. 

[4] We recommended in our 2006 report on human health risk assessment 
that EPA consistently involve stakeholders as appropriate to the risk 
assessment. We made this recommendation in the context of improving the 
overall quality, consistency, and transparency of risk assessments. 
GAO, Human Health Risk Assessment: EPA Has Taken Steps to Strengthen 
Its Process, but Improvements Needed in Planning, Data Development, and 
Training, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-595] 
(Washington, D.C.: May 31, 2006). 

[5] It is not clear whether the time frames exclude reviews conducted 
by EPA's Science Advisory Board, which can also add considerably more 
time than the most basic level of peer review used by the IRIS program-
-panels organized by an EPA contractor. 

[6] The new IRIS assessment process refers to such chemicals as 
"mission critical." The process defines a mission-critical chemical as 
one that "is an integral component to the successful and safe conduct 
of an agency's mission in any or all phases of its operations." 
According to the process, "impacts on the use of mission-critical 
chemicals include cessation or degradation of the conduct of the 
mission and/or unacceptable resource constraints." 

[7] Making these comments public would have been a change from the OMB/ 
interagency review process that has been in place since 2004. 

[8] National Academies, Scientific Review of the Proposed Risk 
Assessment Bulletin from the Office of Management and Budget Committee 
to Review the OMB Risk Assessment Bulletin (2007). 

[9] GAO, Toxic Chemicals: EPA's New Assessment Process Will Increase 
Challenges EPA Faces in Evaluating and Regulating Chemicals, 
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-743T] (Washington, 
D.C.: April 29, 2008). 

[10] The factors we identified that have hindered EPA's efforts to 
improve productivity are the OMB/interagency review process managed by 
OMB, the growing complexity and scope of risk assessments, certain 
management decisions and issues regarding the IRIS program, 
congressional action that has delayed some assessments with potentially 
significant economic effects, and the compounding effect of delays. 

[11] Presentations at the Society for Risk Analysis meeting reflect the 
views of the authors and "do not necessarily reflect the views of any 
other organization or agency." 

[12] Using its 1996 Proposed Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment, 
EPA concluded in the 1998 IRIS assessment of naphthalene that its human 
carcinogenic potential could not be determined at that time, but noted 
that there was suggestive evidence of potential human carcinogenicity. 
(EPA also noted that under its 1986 cancer guidelines, EPA classified 
naphthalene as a possible human carcinogen.) Subsequently, in 2002, the 
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World 
Health Organization, concluded that naphthalene is possibly 
carcinogenic to humans; in 2004, the Department of Human Health and 
Services' National Toxicology Program concluded that naphthalene can 
reasonably be anticipated to be a human carcinogen. EPA's current 
assessment will be subject to the agency's 2005 cancer guidelines. 

[13] According to DOD, EPA did not specifically ask the peer reviewers 
to address some of the technical questions DOD had raised and wanted 
the peer review to address. 

[14] Genotoxic substances are a type of carcinogen, specifically those 
capable of causing genetic mutation and of contributing to the 
development of tumors. This includes both certain chemical compounds 
and certain types of radiation. 

[15] The National Priorities List is EPA's list of seriously 
contaminated sites. 

[16] The cancer portion of the formaldehyde assessment was originally 
issued in 1989 and updated in 1991; the noncancer assessment was added 
in 1990. 

[17] NCI published the results of its study in two publications. The 
first study, published in November 2003, focused on the association 
between formaldehyde exposure and leukemia. M. Hauptmann, J. H. Lubin, 
P. A. Stewart, R. B. Hayes, A. Blair, "Mortality from 
Lymphohematopoietic Malignancies among Workers in Formaldehyde 
Industries," Journal of the National Cancer Institute (2003). The 
second study, published in June 2004, evaluated the association between 
formaldehyde exposure and other cancers--including nasopharyngeal 
cancer. M. Hauptmann, J. H. Lubin, P. A. Stewart, R. B. Hayes, A. 
Blair, "Mortality from Solid Cancers among Workers in Formaldehyde 
Industries," American Journal of Epidemiology (2004). The results of 
the NIOSH study were described in one publication, dated March 2004, 
which assessed mortality from all causes and all cancers. L. E. 
Pinkerton, M. J. Hein, L. T. Stayner, "Mortality among a Cohort of 
Garment Workers Exposed to Formaldehyde: an Update," Occupational and 
Environmental Medicine (2004). 

[18] Natural Resources Defense Council v. E.P.A., 489 F.3d 1364, 1372- 
73 (D.C. Cir, 2007). The court did not specifically address EPA's 
reliance on the CIIT study, holding instead that the Clean Air Act 
prohibited establishment of the exemptions at issue. 

[19] Physiologically based pharmacokinetic models are a class of 
dosimetry models that are useful for predicting internal doses to 
target organs. With the appropriate data, these models can be used to 
extrapolate across species and exposure scenarios and address various 
sources of uncertainty in risk assessments. 

[End of section] 

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