EPA Announces Schedule for Dioxin Assessment

On October 7, 2011, in Regulatory, by Maggie Ernst

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced that it would be splitting its dioxin draft reassessment into two parts– non-cancer assessment and cancer assessment.  EPA plans to complete the non-cancer portion of EPA’s Reanalysis of Key Issues Related to Dioxin Toxicity and Response to National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Comments, and post the final non-cancer assessment to the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) by the end of January 2012.  EPA will then finalize the cancer portion of the dioxin reanalysis as quickly as possible.  This is in response to criticisms contained in an agency Science Advisory Board (SAB) review of EPA’s draft response to NAS’s 2006 comments on the draft reassessment.

The SAB report indicates that EPA selected the most appropriate scientific studies to support the non-cancer health assessment and the oral reference dose derived in the draft assessment.  The SAB also commended EPA for a clear and logical reanalysis document that responded to many of the recommendations offered previously by the NAS.

More information on dioxin can be found at: www.epa.gov/dioxin/.