Letter Peer Reviews of EPA's Exposure and Hazard Information for Five Persistent Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) Chemicals: Preparatory Webcast and Public Comment Opportunities

On May 25, 2018, the Agency published a Federal Register notice 

announcing information on letter peer reviews of EPA's 1) Exposure and Use Assessment and 2) Human Health and Environmental Hazard Summary for five Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxic (PBT) chemicals. There will be a half-day preparatory webcast meeting on June 25, 2018, from approximately 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. eastern time for experts selected to serve as letter peer reviewers to comment on and ask questions regarding the scope and clarity of the draft charge questions to be used in completing their reviews. After this preparatory meeting, final charge questions will be provided to the letter peer reviewers.

Registration is required for the public to participate during this meeting. Participants may register to listen in or to provide oral comments here: www.epa.gov/tsca-peer-review. Those requesting to provide oral comments (approximately 5 minutes) are asked to register by June 21, 2018.

The draft charge questions, the Exposure and Use Assessment, and a Human Health and Environmental Hazard Summary for Five PBT Chemicals are available on www.regulations.gov (docket # EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0314) and on the TSCA Peer Review website (https://www.epa.gov/tsca-peer-review).

Written public comments on the documents undergoing peer review must be submitted by July 23, 2018 to be considered by the letter peer reviewers. Though the peer reviewers may not be able to fully consider written comments submitted after July 23, 2018, EPA will consider all comments submitted on or before August 17, 2018. Written comments may be submitted to the public docket through www.regulations.gov (docket # EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0314).

The list of experts is available in the public docket and the TSCA Peer Review website (www.epa.gov/tsca-peer-review).

The Exposure and Use Assessment and a Human Health and Environmental Hazard Summary were drafted by EPA in response to TSCA section 6(h), which requires the Agency to determine whether exposure to PBT chemicals under the conditions of use is likely to the general population or to the environment. The conditions of use are the circumstances, as determined by the EPA Administrator, under which a chemical substance is intended, known or reasonably foreseen to be manufactured, processed, distributed in commerce, used or disposed of. Under the conditions of use for each PBT chemical, EPA will characterize the exposures to humans and the environment.

Additional information may be found in the docket (https://www.regulations.gov; docket number: EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0314), on the TSCA Peer Review website (https://www.epa.gov/tsca-peer-review), or by contacting the Peer Review Leader, Todd Peterson, Ph.D., (peterson.todd**At_Symbol_Here**epa.gov or 202-564-6428).