EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Program: Progress Report and Report to Congress
Author:
US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA)
Date Published:
2/2015
Description:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Program develops human health assessments that provide health effects information on environmental chemicals to which the public may be exposed, providing a critical part of the scientific foundation for EPA’s decisions to protect public health. In April 2011, the National Research Council (NRC), in their report Review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Draft IRIS Assessment of Formaldehyde¹, made several recommendations to EPA for improving IRIS assessments and the IRIS Program. The NRC’s recommendations were focused on the first step of the IRIS process, the development of draft assessments. Consistent with the advice of the NRC and as the Agency has reported previously, the IRIS Program is implementing these recommendations using a phased approach and is making the most extensive changes to assessments that are currently in the earlier stages of the IRIS process.
In April 2012, EPA delivered a report to Congress outlining EPA’s progress toward implementing the NRC’s recommendations. The 2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act further directs EPA to: “provide to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations a progress report that describes the Agency's implementation of NAS Chapter 7 recommendations for fiscal years 2012 and 2013.” Appendix A provides the exact language from the 2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act related to the IRIS Program. The purpose of this report is to update Congress, stakeholders, and the public on the status of the IRIS Program’s implementation of the NRC recommendations since delivering the 2012 report to Congress. This report also provides specific examples demonstrating the application of scientific methods in IRIS assessments consistent with the NRC’s 2011 recommendations.
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