A Federal Advisory Committee for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development

BOARD OF SCIENTIFIC COUNSELORS (BOSC) 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Conference Call Summary 

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 

1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time 

Welcome and Introductions 

Dr. Gary Sayler, University of Tennessee, BOSC Executive Committee Chair 

Dr. Gary Sayler, Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC) Executive Committee, welcomed 

the Committee members to the teleconference and took roll. A list of the Executive Committee members 

and others who participated in the call is attached. 

Overview of Agenda

Dr. Sayler explained that the primary purpose of this call was to review and approve the BOSC’s 

responses to two mid-cycle progress reports and the Nanomaterial Case Studies Workshop Report. He 

then reviewed the agenda for the call, which included the remarks of the Designated Federal Officer 

(DFO), and discussion and approval of the BOSC responses to the Safe Pesticides/Safe Products (SP2) 

Mid-Cycle Progress Report, the Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA) Mid-Cycle Progress Report, 

and the Nanomaterial Case Studies Workshop Report. The agenda also included time for public comment 

and a discussion of future business. 

BOSC Designated Federal Officer (DFO) Remarks 

Mr. Greg Susanke, U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)/Office of Research and Development 

(ORD), DFO 

Mr. Greg Susanke, DFO for the BOSC Executive Committee, thanked the BOSC members for their 

participation and reviewed the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) procedures that are required for 

all BOSC meetings. In accordance with FACA, all BOSC meetings and conference calls are open to the 

public, and as the DFO, Mr. Susanke ensures that all FACA requirements are met. A notice for this 

conference call was published in the Federal Register on August 6 in accordance with FACA, and an 

electronic docket was established. The docket is available at http://www.regulations.gov, and the docket 

number is EPA-HQ-ORD-2010-0661; the agenda for the call was posted on that site. 

Per FACA requirements, a record of Board deliberations must be made available to the public. Therefore, 

notes of the conference call are being taken by a contractor, Beverly Campbell of The Scientific 

Consulting Group, Inc., who will prepare a summary of the conference call. Following review of the 

summary by the Executive Committee members and certification by the Chair, it will be made available 

to the public in the docket and on the BOSC Web Site (http://www.epa.gov/osp/bosc). 

As the DFO, Mr. Susanke has worked with EPA officials to ensure that appropriate ethics regulations 

have been satisfied and that the Executive Committee members have completed the ethics training for 

special government employees. He asked that Executive Committee members inform him if they 

discover a potential for conflict of interest that would affect their impartiality regarding any of the topics 
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AUGUST 25, 2010, CONFERENCE CALL SUMMARY

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under discussion during the call. Mr. Susanke received 10 requests for the agenda and call-in number but 

there were no requests for public comment submitted prior to the call; nevertheless, there is time set aside 

on the agenda for public comment following the discussion of the BOSC response to the Nanomaterial 

Workshop Report. Mr. Susanke asked that public comments be limited to 3 minutes each. He noted that 

the July meeting summary would have to be approved at the October meeting because he was awaiting 

comments from the various speakers before sending it to the Executive Committee. 

Mr. Susanke stated that the government fiscal year ends on September 30, and he has to account for the

BOSC’s expenditures by that date. Therefore, he requested that all Executive Committee members 

submit their homework sheets to him as soon as possible so that he can get those processed in the next

few weeks. 

BOSC Response to the SP2 Mid-Cycle Progress Report 

Dr. Barry Ryan, Emory University, BOSC Executive Committee Member 

Because Dr. Barry Ryan served as the Vice Chair of the SP2 Subcommittee that conducted the review of 

the program in 2007, he drafted the BOSC’s response to the SP2 Mid-Cycle Progress Report that was 

distributed to the Executive Committee prior to this call. The draft included discussions by the Executive 

Committee made during the July 12, 2010 meeting, 

Dr. Ryan stated that Dr. Elaine Francis, National Program Director (NPD) for the SP2 Research Program,

did a nice job presenting the mid-cycle progress report at the July meeting. All 22 recommendations from 

the 2007 program review were addressed in the progress report. He noted that the SP2 Program will be 

subsumed under the new Safe Products for a Sustainable World (SPSW) Research Program, which was 

described at the July meeting in Corvallis. Therefore, he did not think it was necessary for the BOSC to 

comment on the program’s response to each of the recommendations. Another significant change since 

the 2007 program review was that Long-Term Goal (LTG) 3 was recast and the funding for that research 

was allocated to other parts of the Agency; as a result, the SP2 Research Program is no longer conducting 

that research. 

In summary, Dr. Ryan said that the program has been doing a good job and he expects that they will 

continue to do a good job when the work is moved under the new SPSW Research Program. 

Dr. Sayler asked if there were any comments, issues to discuss, or edits to the BOSC’s response. When

no comments were offered, Dr. Sayler called for a motion to approve the response to the SP2 Mid-Cycle 

Progress Report for submission to the Office of Research and Development (ORD). Dr. John Tharakan 

moved to approve the response with no changes, and Dr. Dennis Paustenbach seconded the motion. The 

response was approved unanimously by the Executive Committee and it will be submitted to ORD with 

no changes. 

BOSC Response to the HHRA Mid-Cycle Progress Report 

Dr. Gary Sayler, BOSC Executive Committee Chair 

Dr. Sayler explained that he had drafted the BOSC’s response to the HHRA Mid-Cycle Progress Report 

that was distributed to the Executive Committee prior to the call. The progress report was presented by 

Ms. Becki Clark, Acting Director of the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), at the 

July meeting in Corvallis. The draft BOSC response was based on the written comments that were 

prepared and submitted by Dr. George Daston, a former member of the Executive Committee, who served 

as the Chair of the HHRA Subcommittee that reviewed the program in 2007. Dr. Sayler thought the 

HHRA Research Program had made good progress since the BOSC program review and had responded to 

most of the BOSC’s recommendations. He noted that the program had not fully responded to a staffing 

recommendation from the 2007 review, but there was no need for further BOSC activity on the issue until 

the next program review. 
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AUGUST 25, 2010, CONFERENCE CALL SUMMARY

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Dr. Tharakan asked if there was anything that the BOSC could do to assist the program in moving 

forward to address the recommendation of hiring more senior scientists. Dr. Sayler replied that there was 

little more that the BOSC could do to facilitate this matter; the Board can only reiterate and strengthen the 

comments made in the 2007 program review. Dr. Sayler asked if there were any other comments on the 

response. Dr. Paustenbach said he thought the report was remarkably thorough and that Ms. Clark’s 

presentation was very clear. Dr. Falk commented that he thought it was a lucid mid-cycle progress report. 

Hearing no additional comments, Dr. Sayler called for a motion to approve the response to the HHRA 

Mid-Cycle Progress Report with no changes. Dr. Ryan moved to approve the response, and Dr. Tharakan 

seconded the motion. The BOSC’s response to the HHRA Mid-Cycle Progress Report was approved 

unanimously by the Executive Committee, and it will be submitted to ORD with no changes. 

 

BOSC Response to Nanomaterial Workshop Report 

Dr. Katherine von Stackelberg, Decision Analysis Workgroup Chair, BOSC Executive Committee 

Member 

Dr. von Stackelberg presented her thoughts on the Nanomaterial Workshop Report at the July meeting in 

Corvallis. After that meeting, she prepared a draft BOSC response to the workshop report based on her

comments and the discussion at the July meeting. That draft was circulated to the other members of the

Decision Analysis Workgroup and their comments were incorporated to generate the draft that was 

distributed to the Executive Committee prior to this call. Dr. von Stackelberg noted that the Decision 

Analysis Workgroup members were satisfied with the draft response and thought she had captured their 

comments appropriately. She then asked if there were any comments on the draft response. 

Mr. Susanke stated that this response will be submitted to ORD as a BOSC letter report, so he asked 

Dr. Sayler to prepare a cover letter to accompany the report. Dr. Sayler agreed to prepare the cover letter 

and send it to Mr. Susanke. 

Dr. Ryan indicated that he had some minor editorial corrections. In the third paragraph on page 1, the last 

word in the fourth line should be changed to “way” rather than “sway.” Also, MCDA on page 3, second 

paragraph under the section titled “NGT as a Method for Prioritizing Research Investment Decisions,” 

had not been defined. 

Dr. Susan Cozzens commented that the wording in the first paragraph under the “NGT as a Method for 

Prioritizing Research Investment Decisions” section on page 3 is repeated from the third paragraph on 

page 1. She suggested that the paragraph on page 3 be reworded to avoid the redundancy. There are other 

paragraphs that are redundant as well. Dr. von Stackelberg agreed to do some wordsmithing to eliminate 

the redundancies. Dr. Cozzens also suggested inserting a period after “(US EPA, 2010)” in the first 

paragraph on page 1 to end the sentence there because the next phrase does not relate to the goal of the 

workshop. She proposed inserting the words “The workshop organizers” after the period to begin the 

next sentence. An additional comment was to change “(e.g., Corps)” to “(e.g., Army Corps of Engineers)

at the end of the second line in the second paragraph under the section titled “Background Information” 

on page 2. 

Dr. Sayler thought the report needed some clarification so that the reader could distinguish between the 

BOSC Decision Analysis Workshop, mentioned in the “Background Information” section and the 

Nanomaterial Case Studies Workshop. It should be clear that these were distinct and unrelated 

workshops so that there is no confusion. 

Ms. Marie Zhuikov pointed out that there was an extra space between the words “For” and “example” in 

the first line of the last paragraph on page 3. She also noted that a space should be inserted between

“and,” and “which” in the second line on the top of page 2. 
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AUGUST 25, 2010, CONFERENCE CALL SUMMARY

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Dr. Sayler stated that the report appears to need only minor editing so he proposed that Dr. von 

Stackelberg incorporate these changes and send a revised letter report to both him and Mr. Susanke. 

Mr. Susanke asked if the letter report could include some statement from the BOSC concerning the 

priorities that resulted from the Nominal Group Technique (NGT) used at the Nanomaterial Case Studies 

Workshop. Dr. von Stackelberg responded that the guidance provided by ORD indicated that the BOSC 

was to evaluate the process and not focus on the priorities. Mr. Susanke replied that there were charge 

questions submitted to the BOSC, one of which concerned the priorities. Dr. Sayler asked if Mr. Susanke 

was asking the BOSC to comment on the priorities. Mr. Susanke answered that the BOSC needs to 

weigh-in on the validity and appropriateness of the priorities. Ms. Campbell asked Dr. von Stackelberg if 

she had received a comment on the priorities from Dr. Martin Philbert, because that was an action item

from the July meeting. Dr. Philbert confirmed that he did not provide any comments on the priorities 

following the July meeting. Dr. von Stackelberg stated that the priorities seem to make sense and they 

were developed using a valid process, even though ORD could have gone further. Dr. Philbert was not 

certain what more could be added to the letter report with respect to the priorities. Dr. von Stackelberg 

noted that the report confirms that NGT is a valid process and that the outcomes should be better than if 

no process was used to identify priorities. 

Dr. Sayler asked if the list of questions in the middle of page 4 includes all of the priorities from the 

workshop. Dr. von Stackelberg said that she included most of them. Dr. Sayler stated that from the 

BOSC’s perspective, the prioritized questions seem valid, but it is not clear how they translate into a 

research strategy. That is about all that the BOSC can say at this point. Mr. Susanke asked if the BOSC 

thinks the resulting list of prioritized questions makes sense given the process used at the workshop. 

Dr. Sayler responded that the report can be modified to include a statement about the priorities or it could 

be addressed in the cover letter. Mr. Susanke thought it was important to include the statement in the 

conclusions of the letter report. Dr. Sayler asked Dr. von Stackelberg to add a few lines that indicate the 

acceptability of the priorities. Dr. Tharakan suggested that the report recognize that the list of prioritized 

questions is dynamic and it will probably change as research progresses. Dr. Cozzens pointed out that the 

BOSC is not adopting these questions as the Executive Committee’s priorities in nanomaterials, but is 

recognizing them as a legitimate result of the workshop. 

Dr. Sayler concluded the discussion by stating that the prioritized list of questions is legitimate but the list 

is dynamic and will change over time. The BOSC fundamentally agrees with the outcome of the 

workshop—the results achieved were a valid output of the process. He asked Dr. von Stackelberg to 

incorporate such a statement into the conclusions of the revised letter report. She also will incorporate the 

editorial changes suggested by the Executive Committee. Dr. Tharakan asked if the original request to

the BOSC asked the Board to comment on the prioritized list. Dr. Sayler responded that he did not think 

the BOSC could make any suggestions about what priorities would be more appropriate than those 

identified at the workshop. Mr. Susanke said the addition of the statement described by Dr. Sayler would 

satisfy his concerns regarding the report. Dr. von Stackelberg pointed out that the priority questions are 

specific to one area, but there may be a better process that would yield priorities that could be generalized 

to other areas. ORD cannot afford to hold a workshop on every issue to identify a list of priorities. 

Dr. Tharakan stressed the need to make it clear that the priorities from the workshop relate to specific 

nanomaterials in specific applications, and that the list is dynamic and might change as research results 

become available. Dr. von Stackelberg noted that the list also could change if ORD looks at different

applications of these nanomaterials. Perhaps a decision tree to answer a set of questions may be more

useful. Dr. Sayler thought the report did a good job of addressing that suggestion. 

Dr. Sayler called for a motion to approve the letter report on the Nanomaterial Case Studies Workshop 

with the suggested changes. Dr. Philbert made a motion to approve the report, and Dr. Cozzens seconded 

the motion. The report was approved unanimously by the Executive Committee with the suggested 

changes. 
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AUGUST 25, 2010, CONFERENCE CALL SUMMARY

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Dr. von Stackelberg agreed to submit the revised letter report to Dr. Sayler by Friday, August 27. 

Dr. Sayler will confirm that the changes have been made, prepare a cover letter, and submit them both to 

Mr. Susanke before September 6. 

Public Comment 

Dr. Gary Sayler, BOSC Executive Committee Chair 

Dr. Sayler called for public comments at 2:45 p.m. No comments were offered. 

Future Business 

Dr. Gary Sayler, BOSC Executive Committee Chair 

The next face-to-face BOSC Executive Committee meeting will be held Monday and Tuesday, October 

18-19, 2010, in Washington, DC. Dr. Sayler said he had seen a draft agenda for that meeting, which will 

include a session with speakers on knowledge bases, informatics, and bibliometrics. Mr. Susanke 

indicated that the meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Monday morning and will probably end around 1:00

p.m. on Tuesday. 

Dr. Sayler mentioned that the October meeting will be his last meeting as the BOSC Chair and it will be a 

good opportunity for the Executive Committee members to identify new topics for the future. He asked 

the members to give some thought to the issues that they would like the Board to address in the future. 

There will be time on the agenda to discuss them at the October meeting. He then asked Mr. Susanke 

about the upcoming program reviews. Mr. Susanke responded that with the implementation of the ORD 

Transformation and implementation of Integrated Transdisciplinary Research (ITR) there will be many 

changes in ORD that will affect the program reviews. That is a topic that will be discussed at the October 

meeting. He noted that the Land Research Program review was scheduled for January 2011, but given 

ORD’s shift to ITR, that review will be postponed. Dr. Ryan, who had agreed to chair that 

Subcommittee, said that he had spoken to Ms. Heather Drumm about the postponment. Dr. Chuck Haas 

asked if the Drinking Water Research Program Review was still on track. Mr. Susanke said that ORD is 

considering combining the Drinking Water and Water Quality Research Programs, so that review may be 

postponed. 

Dr. Sayler asked if the members had received their travel reimbursement for the July meeting. Most 

members indicated that they had received their reimbursements. Dr. Sayler said that he had not received 

his reimbursement. Mr. Susanke said he will look into the matter to get it resolved. 

Adjourn 

Dr. Gary Sayler, BOSC Executive Committee Chair 

Dr. Sayler thanked the Executive Committee members for their participation and adjourned the call at 

2:03 p.m. 

Action Items

 Dr. von Stackelberg will revise the letter report on the Nanomaterial Case Studies Workshop Report 

and send it to Dr. Sayler by Friday, August 27. She will make the editorial corrections suggested by 

the Executive Committee, wordsmith the response to eliminate redundancies, and add a few sentences 

pertaining to the validity of the priority questions and the dynamic nature of that list. 

 Dr. Sayler will confirm that the changes have been incorporated into the revised Nanomaterial Case 

Studies letter report, prepare the cover letter, and submit them both to Mr. Susanke. 
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AUGUST 25, 2010, CONFERENCE CALL SUMMARY

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 Mr. Susanke will send the BOSC responses to the SP2 Mid-Cycle Progress Report and the HHRA 

Mid-Cycle Progress Report as well as the letter report on the Nanomaterial Workshop Report to the 

contractor for final formatting and editing. 

 Executive Committee members will give some thought to the future issues that they would like the 

BOSC to consider for discussion at the October meeting. 

 Dr. Sayler will work with Mr. Susanke to complete the agenda for the October Executive Committee 

meeting. 
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AUGUST 25, 2010, CONFERENCE CALL SUMMARY

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PARTICIPANTS LIST

Executive Committee Members

Gary S. Sayler, Ph.D., Chair 

Professor/Director 

Center for Environmental Biotechnology 

University of Tennessee 

Susan Cozzens, Ph.D. 

School of Public Policy 

Georgia Institute of Technology 

Kenneth L. Demerjian, Ph.D. (not present)

Atmospheric Sciences Research Center 

State University of New York 

Henry Falk, M.D., M.P.H.

Director, Coordinating Center for Environmental 

Health and Injury Prevention 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

Charles N. Haas, Ph.D. 

L.D. Betz Professor of Environmental 

Engineering 

Department of Civil, Architectural, and 

Environmental Engineering 

Drexel University 

Kenneth Olden, Ph.D., Sc.D., L.H.D. (not 

present) 

School of Public Health 

City University of New York 

Dennis Paustenbach, Ph.D., CIH, DABT 

ChemRisk, Inc. 

Martin Philbert, Ph.D. 

Department of Environmental Health Sciences 

School of Public Health 

University of Michigan 

P. Barry Ryan, Ph.D. 

Department of Environmental and Occupational 

Health 

Rollins School of Public Health 

Emory University 

John Tharakan, Ph.D. 

College of Engineering, Architecture, and 

Computer Science, College of Medicine 

Howard University 

Katherine von Stackelberg, Sc.D. 

Harvard Center for Risk Analysis 

Harvard School of Public Health 

Marie Zhuikov, M.A. 

Private Communications Consultant 

Designated Federal Officer

Greg Susanke 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

Office of Research and Development 

EPA ORD Participants

Patricia Gillespie 

National Center for Environmental Assessment 

Maureen Gwinn 

National Center for Environmental Assessment

Tom Long 

National Center for Environmental Assessment 

Other Participants

Tera Fong 

Office of Management and Budget 

Mike Hagan 

Office of Management and Budget 

Doland Juberg 

Dow AgroSciences 

Ann McCarthy 

Food and Drug Administration 

Joe Velovitch 

Dow AgroSciences 

Contractor Support

Beverly Campbell 

The Scientific Consulting Group, Inc. 
A Federal Advisory Committee for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING 

AGENDA 

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 

1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time 

CONFERENCE CALL 

Participation by Teleconference Only 

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

1:00 p.m. – 1:10 p.m. Welcome and Introductions Dr. Gary Sayler, 

 - Overview of Agenda Chair, Executive Committee 

1:10 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. BOSC DFO Remarks Mr. Greg Susanke, 

 Designated Federal Officer, 

 Office of Research and 

 Development 

 

1:15 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. BOSC Response to Safe Pesticides/ Dr. Barry Ryan 

 Safe Products Mid-Cycle Progress Executive Committee 

 Report 

1:45 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. BOSC Response to Human Health Dr. Gary Sayler 

 Risk Assessment Mid-Cycle Progress Chair, Executive Committee 

 Report 

2:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. BOSC Response to ORD Dr. Katherine von Stackelberg, 

 Nanomaterial Workshop Report Decision Analysis Workgroup 

 Chair, Executive Committee 

2:45 p.m. – 2:55 p.m. Public Comment 

2:55 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Future Business Dr. Gary Sayler, 

 Chair, Executive Committee 

 

3:00 p.m. Adjourn