Federal Register / Vol. 67, No. 1 / Wednesday, January 2, 2002 / Notices 75

SUMMARY: As required by the Federal 

Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C., App. 

2 section 9(c), EPA’s Office of Pesticide 

Programs (OPP) is giving notice of the 

renewal of the Pesticide Program 

Dialogue Committee (PPDC) and its 

Charter and the appointment of new 

members.

DATES: The PPDC Charter, which was 

filed with Congress on November 9, 

2001, will be in effect for 2 years, until 

November 9, 2003.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Margie Fehrenbach (7501C), Office of 

Pesticide Programs, Environmental 

Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania 

Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460; 

telephone number: (703) 308–4775 or 

(703) 305–7093; fax number: (703) 308–

4776; e-mail address: 

Fehrenbach.Margie@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. General Information 

A. Does this Action Apply to Me? 

This action is directed to the public 

in general. This action may, however, it 

may be of interest to persons who are 

concerned about implementation of the 

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and 

Rodenticide Act; the Federal Food, 

Drug, and Cosmetic Act; and the 

amendments to both of these major 

pesticide laws by the Food Quality 

Protection Act (Public Law 104–170) of 

1996. Since other entities may also be 

interested, the Agency has not 

attempted to describe all the specific 

entities that may be affected by this 

action. If you have any 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,’’ ‘‘Regulations 

and Proposed Rules,’’ 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/. To access 

information about PPDC, go directly to 

the Home Page for EPA’s Office of 

Pesticide Programs at http://

www.epa.gov/pesticides/ppdc. 

2. In person. The Agency has 

established an administrative record for 

this meeting under docket control 

number OPP–00439M. The 

administrative record consists of the 

documents specifically referenced in 

this notice, any public comments 

received during an applicable comment 

period, and other information related to 

the Pesticide Program Dialogue 

Committee (PPDC). This administrative 

record includes the documents that are 

physically located in the docket, as well 

as the documents that are referenced in 

those documents. The public version of 

the administrative record, which 

includes printed, paper versions of any 

electronic comments that may be 

submitted during an applicable 

comment period, is available for 

inspection in the Public Information 

and Records Integrity Branch (PIRIB), 

Rm. 119, Crystal Mall #2, 1921 Jefferson 

Davis Hwy., Arlington, VA, from 8:30 

a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, 

excluding legal holidays. The PIRIB 

telephone number is (703) 305–5805. 

C. How Can I Participate in PPDC 

Meetings? 

PPDC meetings and workshops will 

be open to the public under section 

10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory 

Committee Act, Public Law 92–463. 

Outside statements by observers will be 

welcome. Oral statements will be 

limited to 3–5 minutes, and it is 

preferred that only one person per 

organization present the statement. Any 

person who wishes to file a written 

statement may do so before or after the 

meeting. These statements will become 

part of the permanent record and will be 

available for public inspection at the 

address in Unit II.2. 

II. Background 

The PPDC is composed of 42 members 

appointed by the EPA Deputy 

Administrator. Committee members 

were selected from a balanced group of 

participants from the following sectors: 

Pesticide users, grower and commodity 

groups; industry and trade associations; 

environmental/public interest and 

farmworker groups; Federal, State and 

tribal governments; public health 

organizations; animal welfare; and 

academia. PPDC was established to 

provide a public forum to discuss a 

wide variety of pesticide regulatory 

development and reform initiatives, 

evolving public policy and program 

implementation issues, and science 

policy issues associated with evaluating 

and reducing risks from use of 

pesticides.

List of Subjects 

Environmental protection, 

Agriculture, Chemicals, Drinking water, 

Foods, Pesticides, Pests.

Dated: December 21, 2001. 

Marcia E. Mulkey, 

Director, Office of Pesticide Programs.

[FR Doc. 01–32214 Filed 12–31–01; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560–S

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[FRL–7124–1] 

Peer Review of EPA Draft Human 

Health and Ecological Risk 

Assessment of Perchlorate

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency.

ACTION: Notice of Peer Review 

Workshop and public comment period. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency (EPA) Office of 

Research and Development is 

announcing an external peer review 

workshop to review the revised draft 

document entitled, ‘‘Perchlorate 

Environmental Contamination: 

Toxicological Review and Risk 

Characterization’’ (NCEA–I–0503). The 

EPA is also announcing a public 

comment period for this draft 

document. The workshop is being 

organized and convened by the Eastern 

Research Group, Inc. (ERG), an EPA 

contractor.

DATES: The two-day peer review 

workshop will begin on Tuesday, March 

5, 2002, at 9 a.m. and will end on 

Wednesday, March 6, 2002, at 4:30 p.m. 

The 30-day public review and comment 

period will begin January 9, 2002, and 

will end February 11, 2002.

ADDRESSES: The external peer review 

meeting will be held at a facility in 

Sacramento, California. To attend the 

meeting as an observer, please register 

with ERG via the Internet by visiting 

www.meetings@erg.com. You may also 

register by calling ERG’s conference 

registration line at 781–674–7374 or by 

faxing a registration request to 781–674–

2906. Upon registering, you will be sent 

an agenda and a logistical fact sheet 

containing information on the meeting 

site, overnight accommodations, and 

ground transportation. The deadline for 

pre-registration is February 25, 2002. 

Space is limited, and reservations will 

be accepted on a first-come, first-served 

basis. There will be a limited time for 

oral comments on the revised draft 

document during the meeting. When 

registering, please let ERG know if you 

76 Federal Register / Vol. 67, No. 1 / Wednesday, January 2, 2002 / Notices 

wish to make a brief statement not to 

exceed five minutes. 

Document Availability: The external 

review draft of the perchlorate 

document will be available by January 

9, 2002, on EPA’s National Center for 

Environmental Assessment (NCEA) Web 

site at http://www.epa.gov/ncea. In 

addition, a compact disk (CD) 

containing documents cited in the 

‘‘Perchlorate Environmental 

Contamination: Toxicological Review 

and Risk Characterization’’ report that 

cannot be readily obtained from the 

open literature will be available by 

request as of January 9, 2002. To obtain 

a copy of the CD, you may contact the 

EPA Superfund Records Center in San 

Francisco, California. A shipping and 

handling fee may apply. The circulation 

desk phone number for the Superfund 

Records Center is 415–536–2000. Copies 

of the perchlorate document and CD are 

not available from ERG. 

Comment Submission: Written 

comments should be submitted to ERG, 

Inc., 110 Hartwell Avenue, Lexington, 

Massachusetts 02421. Comments under 

50 pages may be sent via e-mail 

attachment (in Word, Word Perfect, or 

PDF) to www.meetings@erg.com.

Written comments must be postmarked 

by the end of the public comment 

period (February 11, 2002). Please note 

that all technical comments received in 

response to this notice will be placed in 

a public record. For that reason, 

commentors should not submit personal 

information (such as medical data or 

home address), Confidential Business 

Information, or information protected by 

copyright. Due to limited resources, 

acknowledgments will not be sent.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Questions regarding registration and 

logistics should be directed to EPA’s 

contractor, ERG, Inc., at 781–674–7374. 

For technical inquiries, please contact: 

Annie Jarabek, U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency (MD 52), USEPA 

Mailroom, Research Triangle Park, NC 

27711; telephone 919–541–4847; 

facsimile 919–541–1818; e-mail 

jarabek.annie@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Perchlorate (ClO4) is an anion that 

originates as a contaminant in 

groundwater and surface waters from 

the dissolution of ammonium, 

potassium, magnesium, or sodium salts. 

Perchlorate is exceedingly mobile in 

aqueous systems and can persist for 

many decades under typical 

groundwater and surface water 

conditions. A major source of 

perchlorate contamination is the 

manufacture of ammonium perchlorate 

for use as the oxidizer component and 

primary ingredient in solid propellant 

for rockets, missiles, and fireworks. 

EPA’s Superfund Technical Support 

Center issued a provisional reference 

dose (RfD) for perchlorate in 1992 and 

a revised provisional RfD in 1995 based 

on the effects of potassium perchlorate 

in patients with Graves’ disease (an 

autoimmune disease that results in 

hyperthyroidism). (An RfD is an 

estimate of a daily oral human exposure 

that is anticipated to be without adverse 

noncancer health effects over a lifetime.) 

In March 1997, the existing toxicologic 

database on perchlorate was determined 

to be inadequate for quantitative human 

health risk assessment by an external 

peer review panel. A lack of data on the 

ecotoxicological effects was also noted. 

In May 1997, a testing strategy was 

developed based on the known mode-ofaction for perchlorate toxicity (the 

inhibition of iodide uptake in the 

thyroid and subsequent perturbations of 

thyroid hormone homeostasis), and an 

accelerated research program was 

initiated to gain a better understanding 

of the human health effects of 

perchlorate, examine possible ecological 

impacts, refine analytical methods, 

develop treatment technologies, and 

better characterize the occurrence of 

perchlorate in groundwater and surface 

waters. 

In December 1998, the National 

Center for Environmental Assessment 

(NCEA) developed an external peer 

review draft document that assessed the 

human health and ecological risk of 

perchlorate (‘‘Perchlorate 

Environmental Contamination: 

Toxicology Review and Risk 

Characterization Based on Emerging 

Information,’’ NCEA–I–0503). This 

document presented an updated human 

health risk assessment that incorporated 

results of the newly performed health 

effects studies available as of November 

1998 and a screening-level ecological 

assessment. The human health risk 

assessment model utilized a mode-ofaction approach that harmonized 

noncancer and cancer approaches to 

derive a single oral risk benchmark 

based on precursor effects for both 

neurodevelopmental and thyroid 

neoplasia. A workshop was convened in 

February 1999 in San Bernardino, 

California, to provide external peer 

review of that document. Peer reviewers 

endorsed the conceptual approach 

proposed by NCEA, but recommended 

that new analyses be conducted and that 

several additional studies be planned 

and performed. NCEA has prepared a 

revised perchlorate assessment that 

addresses comments from the 1999 

external peer review workshop and 

incorporates data from additional 

studies that were either nearing 

completion at the time of the 1999 

review or were recommended at that 

time. This revised draft document is the 

subject of the external peer review 

workshop announced in today’s Federal 

Register notice. 

The external peer review panel will 

consist of a panel of independent 

scientists selected by EPA’s contractor, 

ERG, from the fields of developmental 

toxicology, reproductive toxicology, 

neurotoxicology, immunotoxicology, 

pharmacokinetics, genetic toxicology, 

endocrinology, pathology, 

epidemiology, statistics, ecotoxicology, 

and environmental transport and 

biotransformation. Peer reviewers will 

review the revised human health and 

ecological risk assessment for 

perchlorate as well as new studies 

performed since the 1999 external peer 

review. Following the external peer 

review workshop, ERG will prepare a 

report summarizing the workshop. EPA 

will address the comments of the 

external peer reviewers in finalizing the 

perchlorate risk assessment document 

and in developing revised toxicity 

values. The human health and 

ecological risk assessment may be used 

in the future to support development of 

a health advisory or possible drinking 

water regulations and cleanup decisions 

at hazardous waste sites. However, any 

such future decisions would be subject 

to all applicable statutory and regulatory 

requirements and policy considerations 

for use of the assessments under those 

programs.

Dated: December 20, 2001. 

George W. Alapas, 

Acting Director, National Center for 

Environmental Assessment.

[FR Doc. 01–32088 Filed 12–31–01; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS 

COMMISSION 

Notice of Public Information 

Collection(s) being Reviewed by the 

Federal Communications Commission 

December 19, 2001.

SUMMARY: The Federal Communications 

Commission, as part of its continuing 

effort to reduce paperwork burden 

invites the general public and other 

Federal agencies to take this 

opportunity to comment on the 

following information collection(s), as 

required by the Paperwork Reduction 

Act of 1995, Public Law 104–13. An 

agency may not conduct or sponsor a 

collection of information unless it 

displays a currently valid control