U.S.A. - EPA Releases 2,000-Page Response to NAS on Draft Dioxin Reassessment

The  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released a nearly 2,000-page response to a 2006 critique of its draft dioxin risk reassessment done by the National Academy of Sciences. The agency then gave affected parties essentially five weeks to comment on the document.

The dioxin document is designed to define the cancer risk of dioxin exposure, dioxins being a family of chemicals including PCBs and PBBs. In its 2006 iteration, criticized by NAS for not including contemporary science and having a flawed approach to cancer-risk evaluation, EPA said the average adult male’s chance of dying of dioxin-induced cancer is 1 in 1000, and that 95 percent of human exposure to dioxin is through foods of animal origin because dioxin ingested through grazing or commercial feeding pools in animal fat. The 95-percent exposure figure stands, but the new cancer risk estimate is still under consideration.

EPA said it will allow 90 days to comment on the response document; however, in order for comments to be considered by an outside Science Advisory Board, they must be submitted by July 7, to be part of the background documents provided to the SAB for a July 13-15 public meeting. The SAB also will hold a public teleconference on or about June 24. EPA said it will consider all comments submitted.

All relevant documents to EPA’s release of its response document may be found at the following sites:

The American Feed Industry Association coordinates the Food Industry Dioxin Working Group, a coalition of farmers and ranchers, as well as food-processing and retailing interests. This group was formed by AFIA in 2003, when it became apparent that while dioxin is an air-borne contaminant, crop production, processing, feeding and food processing are the unwitting conveyances. The coalition works to ensure actions by EPA to mitigate dioxin exposure make sense and are effective.

All relevant documents to EPA’s release of its response document may be found at the following sites:
The May 24 EPA Federal Register Notice - http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-12397.htm  

• The full-length report, “Health Risks from Dioxin and Related Compounds: Evaluation of the EPA Reassessment" - http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11688  

Also released this week is a question-and-answer document about dioxin, and this is the product of a cooperative effort by the Agriculture Department, the Food and Drug Administration and EPA. This document may be found at FDA’s website by visiting this link.
[Source:Steve Kopperud, The American Feed Industry Association].