{"id":7439,"date":"2018-02-06T09:47:28","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T14:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/?p=7439"},"modified":"2018-02-06T09:47:28","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T14:47:28","slug":"edf-lends-strong-support-to-epas-iris-program-in-comments-at-national-academies-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2018\/02\/06\/edf-lends-strong-support-to-epas-iris-program-in-comments-at-national-academies-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"EDF lends strong support to EPA\u2019s IRIS Program in comments at National Academies workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jennifer McPartland, Ph.D.,\u00a0<\/a>is a Senior Scientist with the Health Program.<\/i><\/p>\n

Last week the National Academies held a public workshop<\/a> as part of its review of changes that have been made, or that are planned, by the U.S. EPA Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program. The last National Academies review, published in 2014<\/a>, pointed to significant advancements the program had already achieved since its prior 2011 report:<\/p>\n

Overall, the committee finds that substantial improvements in the IRIS process have been made, and it is clear that EPA has embraced and is acting on the recommendations in the NRC formaldehyde report. The NRC formaldehyde committee recognized that its suggested changes would take several years and an extensive effort by EPA staff to implement. Substantial progress, however, has been made in a short time, and the present committee\u2019s recommendations should be seen as building on the progress that EPA has already made. <\/em><\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve blogged before<\/a>, the EPA IRIS program is a non-regulatory program that provides critical information and scientific expertise that helps ensure that the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the land where we live, work, and play are safe. For example, the IRIS program has a central role to play<\/a> in helping address widespread contamination of drinking water with perfluorinated chemicals.[pullquote]The American public depends on the IRIS program and it is imperative that the program remain intact, housed apart from regulatory parts of the agency, and adequately resourced.<\/strong><\/em>[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n

In the comments I provided on behalf of EDF<\/a> at the meeting, I emphasized that the IRIS program is:<\/p>\n