EPA Accepting Public Comments on Candidates to be ad hoc Reviewers for Draft Supplement to the 1,4-Dioxane Risk Evaluation Under TSCA
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will accept public comments on candidates under consideration for selection as ad hoc reviewers to assist the Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) with their review of the 2023 Draft Supplement to the 1,4-Dioxane Risk Evaluation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Biographies of these candidates are available on regulations.gov and the SACC website.
If selected, candidates will serve as peer reviewers for the 2023 Draft Supplement to the 1,4-Dioxane Risk Evaluation, which will be reviewed by the SACC at a 4-day virtual public meeting on September 12-15, 2023. Registration instructions for the meeting will be announced on the SACC website in mid-August 2023. EPA plans to release the risk evaluation documents for public comment by the end of June 2023.
After the final risk evaluation for 1,4-dioxane was published in December 2020, EPA determined a supplement was needed to consider critical exposure pathways not previously assessed. Specifically, this supplement includes evaluation of additional conditions of use in which 1,4-dioxane is present as a byproduct in industrial processes and commercial products and evaluates risks from general population exposures to 1,4-dioxane released to ambient surface water and groundwater, ambient air, and land. To evaluate these additional exposure pathways, the Agency used new methods and novel applications of existing methods. EPA is seeking review of these new methods because they have not been the subject of public comment or peer review for applications in TSCA risk evaluations. Feedback from this review will be considered in the development of the final supplement to the 1,4-dioxane risk evaluation.
The public comment period will open on June 14, 2023, and end on June 29, 2023. Comments should be submitted to docket EPA-HQ-OPPT-2022-0905 on www.regulations.gov.
The SACC serves as a scientific peer review mechanism of EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. It provides independent scientific advice and recommendations to EPA on the scientific basis for risk assessments, methodologies and pollution prevention measures and approaches for chemicals regulated under TSCA.
For additional information, please see the Federal Register notice or contact the Designated Federal Official, Dr. Alaa Kamel at kamel.alaa@epa.gov.