[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 102 (Friday, May 25, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24305-24306]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-11311]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0314; FRL-9978-42]


Letter Peer Reviews for Exposure and Use Assessment and Human 
Health and Environmental Hazard Summary for Five PBT Chemicals; Notice 
of Public Preparatory Meeting and Public Comment Period

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: There will be a half-day preparatory meeting for experts 
selected to serve as letter peer reviewers for EPA's Exposure and Use 
Assessment and Human Health and Environmental Hazard Summary for Five 
PBT chemicals. The preparatory meeting will be held via teleconference 
and webcast only. Registration is required to attend.

DATES: The preparatory meeting will be held on June 25, 2018, from 
approximately 1:00 p.m. (EDT) to 5:00 p.m.
    Comments. Requests to present oral comments during the preparatory 
meeting should be submitted on or before June 21, 2018. Written 
comments to be considered by the peer reviewers may be submitted until 
July 23, 2018. 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. For 
additional instructions, contact the Peer Review Leader listed under 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT and see SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.
    Webcast. This preparatory meeting will be conducted via 
teleconference and webcast only. Registration is required.
    Special accommodations. For information on access or services for 
individuals with disabilities, and to request accommodation of a 
disability, please contact the Peer Review Leader listed under FOR 
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT at least 10 days prior to the preparatory 
meeting to give EPA as much time as possible to process your request.

ADDRESSES: 
    Meeting: The preparatory meeting will be held via teleconference 
and webcast only. For additional information, please contact the Peer 
Review Leader listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
    Comments. Submit your comments, identified by docket identification 
(ID) number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0314, by one of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Do not submit 
electronically any information you consider to be Confidential Business 
Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted 
by statute.
     Mail: OPPT Docket, Environmental Protection Agency Docket 
Center (EPA/DC), (28221T), 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 
20460-0001.
     Hand Delivery: To make special arrangements for hand 
delivery or delivery of boxed information, please follow the 
instructions at http://www.epa.gov/dockets/contacts.html.
    Additional instructions on commenting or visiting the docket, along 
with more information about dockets generally, is available at http://www.epa.gov/dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Todd Peterson, Ph.D., Peer Review 
Leader, Office of Science Coordination and Policy (7201M), 
Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, 
DC 20460-0001; telephone number: (202) 564-6428; 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 involved in the manufacture, 
processing, distribution, disposal, and/or the assessment of risks 
involving chemical substances and mixtures. Since other entities may 
also

[[Page 24306]]

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 comments for EPA?

    1. Submitting CBI. Do not submit CBI information to EPA through 
regulations.gov or email. If your comments contain any information that 
you consider to be CBI or otherwise protected, please contact the Peer 
Review Leader listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT to obtain 
special instructions before submitting your comments.
    2. Tips for preparing your comments. When preparing and submitting 
your comments, see the commenting tips at http://www.epa.gov/dockets/comments.html.

C. How may I participate in this meeting?

    You may participate in this preparatory meeting by following the 
instructions in this unit. To ensure proper receipt by EPA, it is 
imperative that you identify docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0314 in 
the subject line on the first page of your request.
    1. Written comments. The Agency encourages written comments be 
submitted, using the instructions in ADDRESSES and Unit I.B., on or 
before July 23, 2018, to provide the letter peer reviewers the time 
necessary to consider and review the written comments. 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.
    2. Oral comments. The Agency encourages each individual or group 
wishing to present brief oral comments to the letter peer reviewers 
during the preparatory meeting to submit their request to the peer 
review leader listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT on or before 
June 21, 2018, in order to be included on the preparatory meeting 
agenda. The request should identify the name of the individual making 
the presentation, the organization (if any) the individual will 
represent, and any requirements for audiovisual equipment. Oral 
comments are limited to approximately 5 minutes due to the time 
constraints of the preparatory meeting.

II. Background

A. Letter Peer Review

    Section 6(h) of the Toxics Substances Control Act (TSCA) directs 
EPA to issue regulations under 6(a) for certain Persistent 
Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) chemical substances that were 
identified in EPA's TSCA Work Plan for Chemical Assessments: 2014 
update. The chemicals that were ranked high or moderate for either 
persistence and bioaccumulation, are present on the TSCA 2014 workplan 
chemical list that are not metals, that do not have problem formulation 
completed, do not have a review under section 5, and do not have a 
consent agreement under section 4 are the following five chemicals: 
Decabromodiphenyl ethers (DECA); Hexachlorobutadiene (HCBD); 
Pentachlorothiophenol (PCTP); Phenol, isopropylated, phosphate (3:1) 
(PIP3/ITPP); and 2,4,6-Tris(tert-butyl) phenol (2, 4, 6 TRIS).
    No risk evaluation is required for these PBT chemicals. EPA has 
drafted an Exposure and Use Assessment and a Human Health and 
Environmental Hazard Summary, in response to the TSCA section 6(h) 
requirements to summarize conclusions of toxicity and whether there is 
likely exposure to these PBT chemicals. These documents contain the 
following components:
     Chemistry, physical-chemical properties and expected 
transport and partitioning.
     Characterization of manufacture (including import), 
processing, uses and potential sources of exposure.
     Summary of available monitoring data, concentrations and 
doses.
     Characterization of trends in releases/exposures over 
time.
     Summary of environmental hazard (written and tabular 
summaries).
     Summary of human health hazard (written and tabular 
summaries).
     Strategy for identifying environmental hazard summary 
information.
     Strategy for identifying human health summary information.
     Supplemental Files that identify how environmental 
information was searched, screened, and evaluated.

B. Public Preparatory Meeting

    The Agency has organized letter peer reviews for the Exposure and 
Use Assessment and the Human Health and Environmental Hazard Summary. 
The June 25, 2018 preparatory meeting will be held by teleconference 
and webcast only. During the preparatory meeting, the individual letter 
peer reviewers will have the opportunity to comment on and ask 
questions regarding the scope and clarity of the draft charge 
questions. Subsequent to this preparatory meeting, final charge 
questions will be provided for use as the letter peer reviewers 
complete their individual reviews.

C. Letter Peer Review Documents

    EPA's background papers, related supporting materials, and charge/
questions for these letter peer reviews will be available in the public 
docket (EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0314) on June 18, 2018. In addition, the 
Agency may provide additional background documents and public comments 
as the materials become available. You may obtain electronic copies of 
these documents, and certain other related documents that might be 
available in the public docket at http://www.regulations.gov and on the 
TSCA Peer Review website at https://www.epa.gov/tsca-peer-review.

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

    Dated: May 18, 2018.
Stanley Barone, Jr.,
Acting Director, Office of Science Coordination and Policy.
[FR Doc. 2018-11311 Filed 5-24-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P


