Science advisors urge EPA to complete 1-BP risk assessment.

The Chemical Safety Advisory Committee is urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to complete and publish its risk assessment of 1-bromopropane without delay, due to “the high risks of adverse effects” in occupational and consumer use scenarios that have already been evaluated. In meeting minutes [PDF] submitted to EPA last week, some Committee members commented that these risks might have been under-estimated. The chemical, also known as 1-BP, is used in spray adhesives, dry cleaning, and degreasing, and was among the chemicals identified in the 2012 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Work Plan.

The Committee, an independent panel of scientific advisors comprised of experts in toxicology, environmental risk assessment, exposure assessment and related fields, met in May to review the scientific and technical merit of EPA’s draft risk assessment for 1-BP, which was released in March 2016.

Overall, the Committee praised the draft risk assessment, concluding that “the conceptual model appropriately considers worker exposures and consumer uses, with the majority of exposure occurring via inhalation.” The Committee stressed the importance of including consumer uses with acute exposures, and several members called for better consideration of exposure from co-residence and community-level exposures near dry-cleaning facilities. The Committee provided recommendations “intended to improve the clarity and transparency of the scientific analyses,” including the adoption of systematic review processes to clarify how studies were selected and evaluated. Other recommendations include ways to refine occupational and consumer exposure assessments.

Under the new requirements of the Lautenberg Act, EPA must identify 10 Work Plan chemicals for risk evaluations to be initiated by December 2016. EPA will revamp the prioritization process for risk evaluations in 2017 and 2018, using new criteria to be established, through rule-making, by mid-June 2017.