Availability of Draft Data Summaries and Draft Priorities For 50 Chemicals With Respect to Their Potential to Cause Cancer: Request for Relevant Information

The California Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), as lead agency for the implementation of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65), has developed a procedure for prioritizing chemicals for consideration under Proposition 65 by the "State's qualified experts." Two committees of the Science Advisory Board (SAB), known as the Carcinogen Identification Committee, and the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee, serve as the State's qualified experts for rendering an opinion as to whether a chemical is known to the State to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive

The procedure used by OEHHA to identify, prioritize and select candidate chemicals for evaluation by the SAB Committees is described in, "Procedure for Prioritizing Candidate Chemicals for Consideration Under Proposition 65 by the State's Qualified Experts," May 1997. In accordance with this procedure, prioritized chemicals with a final priority of High Carcinogenicity Concern are assigned to the Candidate List, from which chemicals will be chosen for the preparation of hazard identification documents, and subsequent evaluation by the Carcinogen Identification Committee. All chemicals not assigned a final "high" level of carcinogenicity concern are assigned to Category II. Here draft priorities are identified as either "High" Carcinogenicity Concern, or "Not "enough to merit placement on the Candidate List.

With this notice we are announcing the release of draft data summaries and draft priorities concerning the potential for the chemicals indicated below to cause cancer. This notice initiates a 60-day public comment period. These 50 chemicals were selected for prioritization as described in OEHHA's Notice to Interested Parties: Results of the Third Round Pilot Random Selection of the Chemicals Eligible for Prioritization For Consideration of Carcinogenicity Evaluation, published in the California Regulatory Notice Register (Register 01, No. 45-Z) on November 9, 2001. The chemicals and their draft priorities are as follows:

* AZT is also being considered separately under the authoritative bodies listing mechanism

OEHHA also announces that a public workshop to receive external scientific peer review and public comments on the draft data summaries and draft priority assignments for these chemicals will be held on Wednesday, November 19, 2003. The workshop will commence at 10:00 a.m. in Room 11, Second Floor, Elihu Harris State Building, 1515 Clay Street, Oakland, California, and will last until all business has been conducted or until 5:00 p.m.

OEHHA is committed to public participation and external scientific peer review in its implementation of Proposition 65, and welcomes public input. The draft data summaries and draft priority assignments for these chemicals are available from the Proposition 65 Implementation Office at the address and telephone number indicated below, or from the Internet at the following address: http://www.oehha.ca.gov.

Written comments may be submitted in triplicate to:

Ms. Cynthia Oshita
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment
Street Address: 1001 I Street
Sacramento, California 95814

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 4010
Sacramento, California 95812-4010

Fax No.: (916) 323-8803
Telephone: (916) 445-6900

coshita@oehha.ca.gov

In order to be considered, comments must be postmarked (if sent by mail) or received at OEHHA (if delivered in person or sent by FAX) by 5 p.m. Tuesday, December 16, 2003.