[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 151 (Wednesday, August 6, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45796-45798]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-18357]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-HQ-OPPT-2010-0173; FRL-9914-12]
Approach for Estimating Exposures and Incremental Health Effects
From Lead Due to Renovation, Repair, and Painting Activities in Public
and Commercial Buildings; Notice of Availability and Request for
Comment
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: EPA is currently in the process of determining whether or not
lead-based paint hazards are created by renovation, repair, and
painting (RRP) activities in public and commercial buildings (P&CBs),
as required under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). EPA is
making the following documents available for public review and comment
before they undergo external peer review: ``Approach for Estimating
Exposures and Incremental Health Effects from Lead Due to Renovation,
Repair, and Painting Activities in Public and Commercial Buildings''
(the Approach); the detailed appendices for the Approach; and a
supplementary report, entitled ``Developing a Concentration-Response
Function for Pb Exposure and Cardiovascular Disease-Related
Mortality.'' Together, these documents describe a methodology for
estimating exposures and incremental health effects created by
renovations of P&CBs. This methodology could be used to identify and
evaluate hazards from RRP in P&CBs. Also available for public review
and comment is a list of charge questions that will be directed to the
external peer reviewers for the Approach.
DATES: Comments must be submitted September 22, 2014.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by docket identification
(ID) number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2010-0173, by one of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
Mail: Document Control Office (7407M), Office of Pollution
Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200
Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20460-0001.
[[Page 45797]]
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: For technical information contact:
Stan Barone, Jr., Risk Assessment Division (7403M), Office of Pollution
Prevention and Toxics, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200
Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20460-0001; telephone number
(202) 564-1169; email address: [email protected].
For general information contact: The TSCA-Hotline, ABVI-Goodwill,
422 South Clinton Ave., Rochester, NY 14620; telephone number: (202)
554-1404; 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, and may be of
interest to a wide range of stakeholders including independent
contractors and contracting companies involved in renovation, repair,
and painting, as well as academics and members of the public interested
in environmental and human health assessment and the assessment of
chemical risks. Since others also may 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 confidential business information (CBI). Do not
submit this information to EPA through regulations.gov or email.
Clearly mark the part or all of the information that you claim to be
CBI. For CBI information in a disk or CD-ROM that you mail to EPA, mark
the outside of the disk or CD-ROM as CBI and then identify
electronically within the disk or CD-ROM the specific information that
is claimed as CBI. In addition to one complete version of the comment
that includes information claimed as CBI, a copy of the comment that
does not contain the information claimed as CBI must be submitted for
inclusion in the public docket. Information so marked will not be
disclosed except in accordance with procedures set forth in 40 CFR part
2.
2. Tips for preparing your comments. When submitting comments,
remember to:
i. Identify the document by docket ID number and other identifying
information (subject heading, Federal Register date and page number).
ii. Follow directions. The Agency may ask you to respond to
specific questions or organize comments by referencing a Code of
Federal Regulations (CFR) part or section number.
iii. Explain why you agree or disagree; suggest alternatives and
substitute language for your requested changes.
iv. Describe any assumptions and provide any technical information
and/or data that you used.
v. If you estimate potential costs or burdens, explain how you
arrived at your estimate in sufficient detail to allow for it to be
reproduced.
vi. Provide specific examples to illustrate your concerns and
suggest alternatives.
vii. Explain your views as clearly as possible, avoiding the use of
profanity or personal threats.
viii. Make sure to submit your comments by the comment period
deadline identified.
II. Background
EPA is currently in the process of determining whether or not lead-
based paint hazards are created by RRP activities in P&CBs, as required
under TSCA, Subtitle IV (15 U.S.C. 2681 et seq.). For those renovation
activities in P&CBs that create lead-based paint hazards, TSCA directs
EPA to address the hazards through regulation.
EPA recently published in the Federal Register of May 30, 2014
(Ref. 1) a document for public comment, entitled ``Framework for
Identifying and Evaluating Lead-Based Paint Hazards from Renovation,
Repair, and Painting Activities in Public and Commercial Buildings''
(Ref. 2). This Framework document described, in general terms, how EPA
could identify and evaluate hazards in P&CBs.
The current document, entitled ``Approach for Estimating Exposures
and Incremental Health Effects from Lead Due to Renovation, Repair, and
Painting Activities in Public and Commercial Buildings'' (Ref. 3)
describes how EPA is modeling the potential overall magnitude and
distribution of renovation-related health effects due to lead exposure
from a renovation in a P&CB, taking into account background lead levels
when no such renovation exposure occurs. Based on information developed
through the Approach, renovation-related health effects will be
estimated as the difference between total health effects (background
plus renovation-related) and background. Exposures from renovation
activities that disturb lead-based paint are connected to subsequent
health effects in children and adults through modeling. Separate Monte-
Carlo based models were constructed for the analysis of exterior
renovations of P&CBs and interior renovations of P&CBs.
The Monte Carlo analysis is designed to capture potential
population-level variability within each exposure scenario and, as
such, approximates the potential distribution of effects to the part of
the U.S. population who would fall within any scenario. However, the
results presented in the Approach are not representative of an overall
distribution of the entire U.S. population. All scenarios are not
equally likely, and in fact some scenarios may be very unlikely to
occur. In the future, EPA plans to estimate how many people may be
reasonably expected to be exposed in different scenarios.
After further analysis, the full results of the Approach, along
with information about how often any scenario is expected to actually
occur, will be used to consider whether or not renovation activities in
P&CBs create hazards and, if so, what mitigation measures may be
appropriate. EPA plans to consider renovation-related dust loadings,
blood lead, and health effect changes across exposure scenarios in
order to evaluate whether a hazard occurs. A detailed discussion of the
additional analyses and considerations that would inform EPA's process
of making a hazard finding, or a finding of no hazard, are contained in
the Approach. By itself, the Approach methodology cannot be used to
determine whether hazards exist from P&CB renovations. EPA will need to
conduct additional analyses and make certain science policy decisions
in order to determine whether such hazards exist.
EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) has
identified the Approach as an influential product and according to EPA
peer review guidance is conducting an external peer review of that
document, supplemental files, appendices (Ref. 4), and attendant models
used for exposure scenarios. The external peer reviewers will assess
the accuracy and content of the Approach, ensuring that the Approach
and initial results are scientifically sound. The external peer review
will also address the supplemental documents, which include detailed
appendices for the Approach and a supplementary report relating lead
exposure to Cardiovascular
[[Page 45798]]
Disease (CVD) mortality and proposing an approach to quantify adult
health benefits from a reduction in lead (Pb) exposure for CVD
mortality, entitled ``Developing a Concentration-Response Function for
Pb Exposure and Cardiovascular Disease-Related Mortality'' (Ref. 5).
The panel peer review meetings are expected to occur later in 2014, and
the public will have an opportunity to review and comment on the
materials given to the external peer reviewers.
III. Request for Comment
EPA is requesting public review and comment on all aspects of the
Approach and its supplemental files, appendices, attendant models, peer
review charge (Ref. 6), and particularly related to the following:
The utility of the Approach for estimating exposures
through summarizing building use configuration types and human-activity
patterns to incorporate variability across the wide variety of P&CBs.
The utility of the updated Leggett Model (original model
described in Leggett 1993 (Ref. 7); updated model described in the
appendices to the Approach (Ref. 4)) to estimate blood lead levels for
both children and adults, and specifically the use of the various
outputs derived from the Leggett Model (concurrent blood lead, lifetime
blood lead, and bone lead) in concentration-response curves for
children and adults.
The utility of concentration-response functions for health
endpoints in both children and adults for assessing risk to human
health inside P&CBs as a result of P&CB renovations.
IV. References
The following is a listing of the documents that are specifically
referenced in this document. The docket includes these documents and
other information considered by EPA, including documents that are
referenced within the documents that are included in the docket, even
if the referenced document is not physically located in the docket. For
assistance in locating these other documents, please consult the
technical person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
1. EPA. Lead; Framework for Identifying and Evaluating Lead-
Based Paint Hazards From Renovation, Repair, and Painting Activities
in Public and Commercial Buildings. Federal Register (79 FR 31072,
May 30, 2014) (FRL-9910-44).
2. EPA. Framework for Identifying and Evaluating Lead-Based
Paint Hazards From Renovation, Repair, and Painting Activities in
Public and Commercial Buildings. May 2014. Document ID number EPA-
HQ-OPPT-2010-0173-0196. Also available at http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-05/documents/lead_pncb_framework_document.pdf.
3. EPA. Approach for Estimating Exposures and Incremental Health
Effects from Lead Due to Renovation, Repair, and Painting Activities
in Public and Commercial Buildings. July 2014. Docket ID number EPA-
HQ-OPPT-2010-0173.
4. EPA. Appendices to the Approach for Estimating Exposures and
Incremental Health Effects from Lead due to Renovation, Repair, and
Painting Activities in Public and Commercial Buildings. July 2014.
Docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2010-0173.
5. EPA. Developing a Concentration-Response Function for Pb
Exposure and Cardiovascular Disease-Related Mortality. July 2014.
Docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2010-0173.
6. EPA. Charge Questions for Approach for Estimating Exposures
and Incremental Health Effects from Lead due to Renovation, Repair,
and Painting Activities in Public and Commercial Buildings. July
2014. Docket ID EPA-HQ-OPPT-2010-0173.
7. Leggett, R.W. An age-specific kinetic model of lead
metabolism in humans. Environmental Health Perspectives. 101:598-
616. 1993.
List of Subjects
Environmental protection, Business and industry, Commercial
buildings, Lead, Peer revew, Renovation, Risk assessment.
Dated: July 28, 2014.
Wendy C. Hamnett,
Director, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics.
[FR Doc. 2014-18357 Filed 8-5-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P