37544 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 116 / Thursday, June 15, 2000 / Notices

4537, or via e-mail at

clark.dorothy@epa.gov.

Purpose of the Meeting: In this

meeting, the Executive Committee plans

to review reports from some of its

Committees/Subcommittee, most likely

including the following:

(1) Air Toxics Monitoring

Subcommittee of the Executive

Committee ‘‘Review of Draft Air Toxics

Monitoring Strategy Concept Paper’’

(this report may be reviewed and

approved at the June 16 EC

Teleconference—see 65 FR 33318, dated

May 23, 2000, and 65 FR 30589, dated

May 12, 2000 for details).

(2) Environmental Economics

Advisory Committee (EEAC): ‘‘Benefits

Adjustments for Long-Term Effects.’’

Availability of Review Materials:

Drafts of the reports that will be

reviewed at the meeting will be

available to the public at the SAB

website (http://www.epa.gov/sab) by

close-of-business on June 21, 2000

(Note: the Air Toxics draft report has

already been posted).

For Further Information: Any member

of the public wishing further

information concerning this meeting or

wishing to submit brief oral comments

must contact Dr. Donald Barnes,

Designated Federal Officer, Science

Advisory Board (1400A), U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency, 1200

Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington,

DC 20460; telephone (202) 564–4533;

FAX (202) 501–0323; or via e-mail at

barnes.don@epa.gov. Requests for oral

comments must be in writing (e-mail

preferred) and received by Dr. Barnes no

later than noon Eastern Time on May

26, 2000.

Providing Oral or Written Comments at

SAB Meetings

It is the policy of the Science

Advisory Board to accept written public

comments of any length, and to

accommodate oral public comments

whenever possible. The Science

Advisory Board expects that public

statements presented at its meetings will

not be repetitive of previously

submitted oral or written statements.

Oral Comments: In general, each

individual or group requesting an oral

presentation at a face-to-face meeting

will be limited to a total time of ten

minutes. For teleconference meetings,

opportunities for oral comment will

usually be limited to no more than three

minutes per speaker and no more than

fifteen minutes total. Deadlines for

getting on the public speaker list for a

meeting are given above. Speakers

should bring at least 35 copies of their

comments and presentation slides for

distribution to the reviewers and public

at the meeting. Written Comments:

Although the SAB accepts written

comments until the date of the meeting

(unless otherwise stated), written

comments should be received in the

SAB Staff Office at least one week prior

to the meeting date so that the

comments may be made available to the

committee for their consideration.

Comments should be supplied to the

appropriate DFO at the address/contact

information noted above in the

following formats: One hard copy with

original signature, and one electronic

copy via e-mail (acceptable file format:

WordPerfect, Word, or Rich Text files

(in IBM–PC/Windows 95/98 format).

Those providing written comments and

who attend the meeting are also asked

to bring 25 copies of their comments for

public distribution.

General Information: Additional

information concerning the Science

Advisory Board, its structure, function,

and composition, may be found on the

SAB Website (http://www.epa.gov/sab)

and in The FY1999 Annual Report of

the Staff Director which is available

from the SAB Publications Staff at (202)

564–4533 or via fax at (202) 501–0256.

Committee rosters, draft Agendas and

meeting calendars are also located on

our website.

Meeting Access: Individuals requiring

special accommodation at this meeting,

including wheelchair access to the

conference room, should contact the

DFO at least five business days prior to

the meeting so that appropriate

arrangements can be made.

Dated: June 9, 2000.

Donald G. Barnes,

Staff Director, Science Advisory Board.

[FR Doc. 00–15157 Filed 6–14–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

AGENCY

[FRL–6716–8]

Science Advisory Board, Office of Air

and Radiation, Office of Research and

Development Notification of Public

Workshop

Notice is hereby given that the US

EPA Offices of Research and

Development (ORD) and Air and

Radiation (OAR), along with the US

EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB),

will jointly host a public workshop on

the Benefits of Reductions in Exposure

to Hazardous Air Pollutants: Developing

Best Estimates of Dose-Response

Functions on the date and time noted

below. The meeting is open to the

public, however, seating is limited and

available on a first come basis.

SAB/EPA Workshop on the Benefits of

Reductions in Exposure to Hazardous

Air Pollutants (HAPs Workshop):

Developing Best Estimates of DoseResponse Functions—June 22–23, 2000

The Workshop will be held on June

22 and 23, 2000 at the Westin Grand

Hotel, West 2350 M Street, NW,

Washington DC 20037, Telephone 202–

429–0100. The meeting will begin by 9

a.m. on June 22, 2000 and adjourn no

later than 12 p.m. on June 23, 2000.

Purpose of the Meeting—The

workshop will convene experts from

different disciplines and different

backgrounds to discuss ideas for dose

response assessment methods for

hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) that are

appropriate for use in assessing benefits

associated with HAP emission control

measures. Such benefits assessments are

not only required by statute to support

EPA’s Report to Congress under section

812 of the Clean Air Act Amendments,

but they are also required as part of the

regulatory activities associated with

HAPs. EPA is seeking a wide spectrum

of views at the workshop and is not

seeking a consensus recommendation

from workshop participants.

Expected outcomes from this

workshop will include a report

documenting: (1) Proposed approaches

for hazard assessments for selected

HAPs that would facilitate benefit

assessments for those chemicals; (2)

expert discussants’ views on whether it

is possible to produce a methodology for

developing central tendencies and

distributions in hazard assessments for

HAPs for use in benefits analyses and

how that might best be done; (3) how

best to identify limitations and

uncertainties in both risk assessment

methods and economic models; and (4)

suggestions and priorities for a research

agenda to address identified gaps in

available data and methods needed to

conduct HAPs related benefit analyses.

Background—Hazardous air

pollutants (HAPs) have been the focus

of a number of EPA regulatory actions,

which have resulted in significant

reductions in emissions of HAPs. EPA

has been unable to adequately assess the

economic benefits associated with

health improvements from these HAP

reductions due to a lack of best estimate

dose-response functions for health

endpoints associated with exposure to

HAPs and also due to the air quality and

exposure models for HAPs available for

use in benefits analysis. EPA is

conducting two activities to develop a

proposed methodology to generate

estimates of the quantified and

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 116 / Thursday, June 15, 2000 / Notices 37545

monetized benefits of reductions in

exposure to HAPs. The first will be a

workshop focusing on developing best

estimates of dose-response functions

that relate changes in HAP exposure to

changes in health outcomes. The second

activity will focus on (1) integrating

these dose-response functions with

appropriate models of HAP

concentrations and human exposure

and (2) translating these into economic

benefits that would estimate changes in

health risks resulting from regulations

that reduce HAP emissions.

The overall goal of these two activities

is to identify methods for the Agency to

consider using in estimating changes in

health risks resulting from HAP

regulations that can be combined with

valuation functions to estimate

monetized benefits of HAP reductions.

Risk assessments for HAPs have been

developed to help decision makers set

health-based standards that are

consistent with EPA’s mission to protect

human health. The quantitative toxicity

values from these assessments (that is,

the cancer slope factors and the

noncancer reference concentrations and

reference doses) are typically based on

animal and epidemiologic studies that

involve higher exposures than those

encountered in the environment. The

gap between environmental doses and

study doses has led to toxicity values

that can put a bound on the actual risk

without being able to provide a reliable

central estimate or distribution of risks.

It is these latter terms (central estimates

and distributions) that economists have

traditionally used to estimate the

economic value of potential changes in

risks.

In contrast, risk assessments for

criteria pollutants have been based on

epidemiologic and clinical studies of

exposures similar to those encountered

in the environment. This has allowed

development of standard statistical

confidence intervals and distributions.

With this information, economists have

been able to develop economic benefit

estimates for many health endpoints

related to criteria pollutants. Criteria

pollutant benefit estimates have been

feasible because of the availability of: (a)

Well-defined health endpoints such as

hospital admissions or premature

mortality; (b) dose-response functions

from epidemiological and clinical

studies which support estimates of risk

reductions in terms amenable to

economic valuation; (c) reliable

estimates of ambient concentration and

population exposure change; and (d)

dose-response functions available from

epidemiological and clinical studies in

which the exposures were similar to

those being experienced in the ambient

environment. Uncertainties related to

the health benefits of criteria pollutants

have generally been represented by

standard confidence intervals based on

measures of within and between study

variation in the estimated health effects.

While mortality from HAP-related

cancer is a well-defined endpoint, there

are very few validated exposureresponse relationships. For the many

other potential health effects from

exposure to HAPs, such as changes in

reproductive functions or mutagenic

effects, there are major information gaps

in all aspects of risk assessment, as well

as in exposure-response and valuation.

The focus of this workshop will be the

development of best-estimates and

uncertainty characterizations for hazard

and dose response functions for use in

benefits analyses of HAP regulations,

with a focus on providing potentially

useful data and tools to support HAPrelated benefit assessments, including

national-scale program evaluations.

For Further Information—Any

member of the public wishing further

information concerning this workshop

should consult the website for this

workshop at http://www.epa.gov/ttn/

ecas/meetings/coverhap.html or contact

Ms. Heather Hodgeman in EPA’s Office

of Air and Radiation via email at

hodgeman.heather@epa.gov or by

telephone at (919) 541–5668.

Dated: June 7, 2000.

John R. Fowle III,

Acting Staff Director, Science Advisory Board.

[FR Doc. 00–15158 Filed 6–14–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

AGENCY

[PF–944; FRL–6558–6]

Notice of Filing a Pesticide Petition to

Establish a Tolerance for Certain

Pesticide Chemicals in or on Food

AGENCY: Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: This notice announces the

initial filing of a pesticide petition

proposing the establishment of

regulations for residues of a certain

pesticide chemical in or on various food

commodities.

DATES: Comments, identified by docket

control number PF–944, must be

received on or before July 17, 2000.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be

submitted by mail, electronically, or in

person. Please follow the detailed

instructions for each method as

provided in Unit I.C. of the

‘‘SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.’’

To ensure proper receipt by EPA, it is

imperative that you identify docket

control number PF–944 in the subject

line on the first page of your response.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: By

mail: Mike Mendelsohn, Biopesticides

and Pollution Prevention Division

(7511C), Office of Pesticide Programs,

Environmental Protection Agency, Ariel

Rios Bldg., 1200 Pennsylvania Ave.,

NW., Washington, DC 20460; telephone

number: (703) 308–8715; e-mail

address:mendelsohn.mike@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. General Information

A. Does this Action Apply to Me?

You may be affected by this action if

you are an agricultural producer, food

manufacturer or pesticide manufacturer.

Potentially affected categories and

entities may include, but are not limited

to:

CategoriesNAICS

codes

Examples of potentially affected entities

Industry 111 Crop production

112 Animal production

311 Food manufacturing

32532 Pesticide manufacturing

This listing is not intended to be

exhaustive, but rather provides a guide

for readers regarding entities likely to be

affected by this action. Other types of

entities not listed in the table could also

be affected. The North American

Industrial Classification System

(NAICS) codes have been provided to

assist you and others in determining

whether or not this action might apply

to certain entities. If you have questions

regarding the applicability of this action

to a particular entity, consult the person

listed under ‘‘FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT.’’

B. How Can I Get Additional

Information, Including Copies of this

Document and Other Related

Documents?

1. Electronically. You may obtain

electronic copies of this document, and

certain other related documents that

might be available electronically, from

the EPA Internet Home Page at http://

www.epa.gov/. To access this

document, on the Home Page select

‘‘Laws and Regulations’’ and then look

up the entry for this document under

the ‘‘Federal Register—Environmental

Documents.’’ You can also go directly to

the Federal Register listings at http://

www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/.