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EPA CHEMICAL ASSESSMENTS

Process Reforms Offer the Potential to Address Key Problems
Statement of John B. Stephenson, Director
Natural Resources and Environment
Thursday, June 11, 2009

Testimony
Before the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, Committee on Science and Technology, House of Representatives

...The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) contains EPA’s scientific position on the potential human health effects of exposure to more than 540 chemicals. Toxicity assessments in the IRIS database constitute the first two critical steps of the risk assessment process, which in turn provides the foundation for risk management decisions. Thus, IRIS is a critical component of EPA’s capacity to support scientifically sound environmental decisions, policies, and regulations. GAO’s 2008 report on the IRIS program identified significant concerns that, coupled with the importance of the program, caused GAO to add EPA’s processes for assessing and controlling toxic chemicals as a high-risk area in its January 2009 biennial status report on governmentwide high-risk areas requiring increased attention by executive agencies and Congress....

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09774t.pdf