Notice of End of Final Public Comment Period on Prioritization of Toxic Air Contaminants - Children's Environmental Health Protection Act

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) released a draft document, Prioritization of Toxic Air Contaminants - Children's Environmental Health Protection Act to solicit public comment on June 22 for a final public comment period. This draft document has been developed by OEHHA for use in implementing the Children's Environmental Health Protection Act (Senate Bill 25, Escutia; chaptered 1999). OEHHA is required to develop, by July 1, 2001, a list of up to five chemicals identified as Toxic Air Contaminants (TACs) that may cause infants and children to be especially susceptible to illness (Health and Safety Code Sections 39669.5(a)). The draft document includes: 1) a description of the prioritization process used to evaluate which TACs potentially disproportionately impact children, and 2) summaries for chemicals considered priority candidates for the list. This document has undergone review by the state's Scientific Review Panel (SRP) on Toxic Air Contaminants. The SRP discussed the document at three separate public meetings.

The initial draft of the document became available on the OEHHA Home Page at http://www.oehha.ca.gov on March 7, 2001, and was out for a formal 30-day public review. Public workshops were held March 19th in Oakland and March 20th in Diamond Bar. Revisions have been made to the document pursuant to public comment and comments from the SRP. The SRP provisionally accepted the document pending review of comments obtained during another public comment period. We have posted a revised draft of the document on June 22nd. The Toxic Air Contaminants under serious consideration for listing in this first iteration are broken into Tier 1, those recommended for listing at this time, and Tier 2, those for which there are concerns but they don't make the top 5. We ask you to focus comments on the major revisions. The major revisions include moving benzene and formaldehyde from Tier 1 to Tier 2, and moving acrolein and diesel exhaust particulate from Tier 2 to Tier 1. In addition, six chemicals were added to Tier 2 upon request by the SRP. This comment period will run through July 13th. All comments must be received by that date.

Please direct any inquiries concerning technical matters or availability of the document to Dr. Andrew Salmon at (510) 622-3150. Please direct your written comments regarding the revised final public review draft document to Dr. Melanie A. Marty, TAC Prioritization, 1515 Clay St., 16th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612. Information about dates and agenda for meetings of the Scientific Review Panel can be obtained from the ARB web page at http://www.arb.ca.gov/srp/srp.htm.