The NAS and PCE

I missed this before. The National Academy of Sciences has been asked by the EPA to conduct a scientific review of the EPA’s external review draft "Toxicological Review of Tetrachloroethylene (Perchloroethylene) CAS No. 127-18-4 in Support of Information on the Integrated Risk Information System". I suppose this is a bit of a timesaver that reflects lessons-learned from the review of TCE. If you recall, the EPA released a draft risk assessment for TCE in 2001 which was shelled by stakeholders including the DOD, solvents and aerospace industries, prompting a year-and-a-half NAS review which was completed in July 2006. By the way, what’s happening with TCE these days? The NAS report on it came out seven months ago. Haven’t heard a peep from EPA about revising the risk assessment. . . .

EPA is getting out ahead of matters this time –the toxicological review document isn’t even out in draft yet (EPA’s web site for PCE is here). It was requested by the Office of Air and Radiation, for purposes of evaluating PCE as a hazardous air pollutant. I suppose that makes sense, to have verified toxicity values for conducting residual risk assessments that assess the effectiveness of control technologies for dry cleaner emissions, implemented under the Clean Air Act.

At the same time, it’s worth raising the question of whether or not spending the better part of two years updating the risk assessment for PCE is necessary to help us manage the risks associated with its use in dry cleaning. Maybe California’s model is the way to go for addressing health risks from PCE.