CDC "Exposure Report." Oct 7, 2002. Notice. Federal Register.

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CDC. "Exposure Report." October 7, 2002. Federal Register.

AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Health and
Human Services (HHS).

Final Selection Criteria and Solicitation of Nominations for
Chemicals or Categories of Environmental Chemicals for Analytic
Development and Inclusion in Future Releases of the National Report on
Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals

[Federal Register: October 7, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 194)]
[Notices]
[Page 62477-62478]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr07oc02-94]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Final Selection Criteria and Solicitation of Nominations for
Chemicals or Categories of Environmental Chemicals for Analytic
Development and Inclusion in Future Releases of the National Report on
Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals
AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Health and
Human Services (HHS).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: On Wednesday, March 20, 2002, CDC sought public comment on its
proposed criteria for selecting environmental chemicals or categories
of chemicals for inclusion in future releases of the National Report on
Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals (the ``Report''). (See
Federal Register, Vol. 67, No. 54, p. 12996). In response to the
comments received, CDC now provides the final selection criteria and
solicits public nominations for categories of chemicals to be included
in future issues of the ``Report.'' The selection criteria, which will
be used by experts to prioritize the nominated chemicals for analytic
development and for inclusion in future issues of the ``Report,'' are
as follows: (1) Independent scientific data which suggest that the
potential for exposure of the U.S. population to a particular chemical
is changing (i.e., increasing or decreasing) or persisting; (2)
seriousness of health effects known or suspected to result from
exposure to the chemical (for example, cancer, birth defects, or other
serious health effects); (3) proportion of the U.S. population likely
to be exposed to levels of chemicals of known or potential health
significance; (4) need to assess the efficacy of public health actions
to reduce exposure to a chemical in the U.S. population or a large
component of the U.S. population (for example, among children, women of
childbearing age, the elderly); (5) existence of an analytical method
that can measure the chemical or its metabolite in blood or urine with
adequate accuracy, precision, sensitivity, specificity, and speed; and
(6) incremental analytical cost (in dollars and personnel) to perform
the analyses (preference is given to chemicals that can be added
readily to existing analytical methods).
CDC welcomes all nominations: those persons who wish to nominate a
chemical or chemical category (for example, pesticides, fumigants)
should use the structural name (for example, 2,3,7,8-
tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin). Do not submit chemicals by their product
names because chemical products are most commonly mixtures of
chemicals. Nominators should indicate which of the selection criteria
the chemical or categories of chemicals satisfy and should provide as
much information as possible about the chemical or chemical category,
including references and Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) numbers. A
CAS number is a unique number assigned to a given compound by the
Chemical Abstracts Service, a division of the American Chemical
Society. This number is also known as the CAS registry number (CAS RN).
You may verify spellings of chemical names and CAS numbers by referring
to Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary (published by John Wiley and
Sons; ISBN: 0471387355) or by searching Web sites such as the
following: http://www.chemfinder.com, http://www.chemindustry.com/
chemicals/index.asp, http://webbool.nist.gov/chemistry/name-ser.html,
or http://db.chemsources.com/chemsources/chemfind.htm. The more
information nominators provide, the more efficiently the nominated
chemical will move through the selection process.
For each criterion, a panel of experts will score nominated
chemicals on a scale of 1 to 5, with a higher score indicating higher
priority. For each criterion, the score will be multiplied by the
weighting factor for the criterion (criteria 1-3 each have weights of
25, criteria 4 and 5 have weights of 10 each, and criterion 6 has a
weight of 5) and the weighted score summed to obtain a final point
score for each chemical or chemical category. The maximum final point
score is 500, which would result from a scoring of 5 for each of the
six criteria. On the basis of its final point score, a chemical will be
placed in one of five priority groups (e.g., priority group 1, priority
group 2, and so on). CDC will report each chemical or chemical category
evaluated along with the priority group to which it was assigned. This
information will appear in the Federal Register and on CDC's Web site
at this address: http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/dls/report/selectedchemicals.
CDC's intent is to maintain a transparent process and to be good
steward of the data it produces.
To that end, CDC will publish additional notices in the Federal
Register as needed to keep the public abreast of progress on the
nomination of chemicals for future issues of the ``Report.''
DATES: Submit nominations on or before December 6, 2002.
ADDRESSES: Address all nominations related to this notice to Dorothy
Sussman, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center
for Environmental Health, Division of Laboratory Sciences, Mail Stop F-
20, 4770 Buford Highway, Atlanta, Georgia 30341. Nominations may also
be made via e-mail to this address: ncehdls@cdc.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Technical Information: Dr. Richard
Wang, Telephone 770-488-7950.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: CDC publishes the ``Report'' under the
authorities 42 U.S.C. 241 and 42 U.S.C. 242k. The ``Report'' provides
an ongoing assessment using biomonitoring of the exposure of the
noninstitutionalized, civilian population to environmental chemicals.
Biomonitoring assesses human exposure to chemicals by measuring the
chemicals or their breakdown products in human specimens such as blood
or urine. For the ``Report,'' an environmental chemical means a
chemical compound or chemical element present in air, water, soil,
dust, food, or other environmental medium. The ``Report'' provides
exposure information about participants in an ongoing national survey
known as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
This survey is conducted by CDC's National Center for Health
Statistics; measurements are conducted by CDC's National Center for
Environmental Health. The first ``Report,'' published in March 2001,
gave information about levels of 27 chemicals found in the U.S.
population. This ``Report'' can be obtained in the following ways:
access http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/dls/report/; e-mail ncehdls@cdc.gov; or
telephone 1-866-670-6052. The second ``Report,'' which will be issued
in late fall of 2002, will include information about at least 75
chemicals. In addition to new data on those chemicals that appeared in
the first ``Report,'' information on the following categories of
chemicals will be in the second ``Report': polycyclic
[[Page 62478]]
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), co-planar and non-coplanar
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), persistent organochlorine pesticides,
carbamate pesticides, dioxins and furans, and phytoestrogens.
Future editions of the ``Report'' will provide detailed assessments
of exposure levels among different population groups defined by sex,
race or ethnicity, age, urban or rural residence, educational level,
income, and other characteristics. Over time, CDC will be able to track
trends in exposure levels. Future editions may also include additional
exposure information for special-exposure populations (e.g., children,
women of childbearing age, the elderly) from studies of people through
localized or point sources, and from studies of adverse health effects
resulting from exposure to varying levels of environmental chemicals.
Dated: September 30, 2002.
Verla S. Neslund,
Director, Executive Secretariat, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC).
[FR Doc. 02-25374 Filed 10-4-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P