Implementation of RAAC to Focus on Harmonization

Dec 13, 1996

News Release
C-43-96

Released: December 13, 1996

Contact: Dan Pellissier, Communications Director
(916) 324-9670

SACRAMENTO - California Secretary for Environmental Protection James M. Strock today accepted a report on the agency's risk assessment practices from a prestigious group of scientists and announced plans to implement its recommendations in accordance with an Executive Order issued yesterday by Governor Wilson.

"Today California advances its environmental leadership on the cutting edge of science, technology and risk assessment. This Committee's outstanding report has given us an unprecedented blueprint for improving relationships, harmonization, and the quality of risk assessment practices well into the 21st Century. Through Governor Wilson's Executive Order, these benefits will be shared throughout State government," Strock said.

The report, a review of the california environmental protection agency's risk assessments practices, policies and guidelines, was the work of the Risk Assessment Advisory Committee, comprised of 34 nationally-known scientists with expertise in the discipline of risk assessment. Senate Bill 1082 (Calderon) of 1993 called for the Director of Cal/EPA's Office of Health Hazard Assessment to appoint a panel of distinguished experts to review Cal/EPA's risk assessment procedures.

Governor Wilson's Executive Order W-137-96 directs the Secretary for Environmental Protection to convene a task force of State Agency and Department heads to evaluate risk assessment procedures and practices and develop plans to implement the recommendations of the report by June 30, 1997. All identified steps would then be completed before 1999.

In addition to praising their work, Secretary Strock also asked the five core Committee members of the RAAC to continue to serve for an additional year as Cal/EPA moves toward implementation of the RAAC Recommendations. Dr. James Seiber, University of Nevada, Reno, and University of California at Davis (Emeritus), Chair of the RAAC effort, who presented the report to Strock, said the Core Committee was honored by the invitation, and would be pleased to stay on for an additional year. The other members of the Core Committee are: Dr. Herschel Griffin, Dr. Judith MacGregor, Dr. John Moore, and Dr. Robert Spear.

The Committee's report contains recommendations to the OEHHA Director and Cal/EPA Secretary to ensure that the State's policies, methods and guidelines for the identification and assessment of chemical toxicity are based upon sound scientific knowledge, methods and practices. Harmonizing risk assessment practices to increase scientific dialogue between state and federal governments, acknowledging emerging scientific ideas and practices, improving the communication of risk, and more consistently applying scientific peer review throughout Cal/EPA are also part of the agency's plan to implement the important report.

"Our general finding is that Cal/EPA's risk assessment products are of good quality, both from the perspective of scientific credibility and professional practice but there is room for improvement and many recommendations are offered in this report that range from strengthening the peer review process for many of Cal/EPA's products to the need to address seriously the implications of uncertainty in the risk assessment process for risk management decisions," the report states.

"The committee strongly endorsed risk assessment as a primary tool for minimizing risks due to exposures to chemicals," said Dr. Seiber. "In that regard, the committee reaffirmed the important role given to risk assessment in state and local decision-making. But California needs to improve its risk assessment capability and process and also take steps to insure that risk assessors and risk managers communicate and cooperate with each other and with their federal counterparts. The committee made both general and specific recommendations in these areas."

The Committee, in its Executive Summary, noted that most of the findings and recommendations could be grouped under four general categories:

providing consistency and harmonization;
best use of scientific information;
the interface between risk assessment and risk management; and
organization and management.

More specifically, the Committee made a number of findings as well as detailed recommendations to improve Cal/EPA's approach to chemical risk management in the areas of hazard identification, dose-response evaluation, exposure assessment and risk characterization as well as on issues that cut across several of these areas. The Committee also recommended that Cal/EPA seek out and implement ways to simplify and streamline the process of risk assessment, both for assessments conducted in-house and for those contracted to outside.

Copies of the report are available at the OEHHA web site at: http://www.calepa.ca.gov/oehha. The full RAAC report is available for both viewing and download from this web site. Bound copies may be obtained for a fee by contacting Copy World, 2154 University Avenue, Berkeley, California 94704 at phone: (510) 849-9701 or fax: (510) 849-9704. A copy of the letter from Governor Wilson to Dr. James N. Seiber, Ph.D., dated December 12, 1996, is as follows.

The following is a letter from Governor Pete Wilson to Dr. James N. Seiber
December 12, 1996
Dr. James N. Seiber, Ph.D.
University Center for Environmental
Sciences and Engineering /199
130 Fleischmann Agriculture Building
Reno, Nevada 89557-0187

Dear Dr. Seiber:

Thank you for your recent letter highlighting the successful completion of the Risk Assessment Advisory Committee's review and encouraging the implementation the Committee's recommendations.

The Committee has provided a great service to the State of California through its thoughtful and objective review of the methods, policies and practices used by the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) in the identification and assessment of chemical toxicity. I am pleased that the Committee found that Cal/EPA's risk assessment products were of high quality and that Cal/EPA is on the right course in its efforts to protect public health and the environment. Likewise, I appreciate the thoughtful series of recommendations provided by the Committee on ways to strengthen the scientific basis of Cal/EPA's risk assessment practices and apply those practices more consistently among its boards and departments.

To ensure timely implementation of the Committee's work, I have signed Executive Order W-137-96 instructing all Cal/EPA Boards, Offices and Departments to develop plans for addressing the Committee's recommendations as part of their strategic planning process for the next fiscal year.

I have also called on Secretary Strock to convene a task force of Department and Agency heads within California State government to identify additional State agencies that perform activities involving chemical risk assessment in the environment. These additional agencies will also develop implementation plans and will be asked to work with Cal/EPA unifying and improving their risk assessment practices. I have designated Cal/EPA's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment as the principal State agency for the coordination of this effort.

It has been a long-standing goal of my administration to maintain California's high environmental standards by applying the best available science in an objective and consistent fashion. The careful implementation of the Committee's recommendations will clearly move us closer to that goal. I want to thank you and the other members of the Committee for your efforts to help keep California on the cutting edge of environmental science.

Sincerely,

-- original signed by Governor Pete Wilson

State Capitol - Sacramento, California 95814

Executive order w-137-96

WHEREAS, one of the founding principles of the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) was that regulatory decisions involving assessment of the environmental risk to human health must be based on rigorous and internally consistent science, at the level widely recognized to be the best available in order to ensure that State government regulates effectively and reasonably; and

WHEREAS, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment within Cal/EPA is charged with providing sound, objective scientific assessment of risks posed by hazardous substances; and

WHEREAS, the California State Legislature enacted SB 1082 (Calderon, 1993), which mandated a study of the risk assessment practices of Cal/EPA programs by a panel of expert scientists, deemed the Risk Assessment Advisory Committee; and

WHEREAS, this panel of distinguished scientists have completed their independent review and published their findings and recommendations in a report titled A Review of the California Environmental Protection Agency's Risk Assessment Practices Policies and Guidelines: and

WHEREAS, the focus of the Risk Assessment Advisory Committee review and recommendations is on ensuring that Cal/EPA's human health risk assessment practices are based on sound up-to-date science, and are objectively and consistently applied, where appropriate, across all of its boards, departments and offices;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, PETE WILSON, Governor of the State of California, by virtue of the power and authority vested in me by the Constitution and statutes of the State of California, do hereby issue this order to become effective immediately:

1. Cal/EPA, including all of its member boards, departments and offices shall evaluate the Committee's report and develop implementation plans for their respective human health risk assessment programs as part of their strategic planning efforts by June 30, 1997. These strategic plans shall establish a program to implement the Committee's recommendations by January 1, 1999.

2. Cal/EPA, including all of its member boards, departments and offices shall take immediate steps to enhance consistency and foster Agency-wide state and federal uniformity in risk assessment methods and practices. Within sixty days, the Secretary for Environmental Protection Agency is hereby directed to convene a task force of Agency and Department heads within State government to identify~ those boards, departments and offices that assess the toxicity of, exposure to, or risk from chemicals in the environment to human health in order to include them in the uniformity effort and improvement of risk assessment practices as outlined in the Committee's report. Boards, departments and offices identified through this process shall report back to the task force on their implementation plans by June 30, 1997.

3. To implement the results of the review as mandated by SB 1082, I hereby designate, as authorized by Section 11019.6 (a) of the Government Code, Cal/EPA's Office Of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment as the principal State agency for the coordination of procedures, forms and deadlines related to human health risk assessment from chemicals in the environment. All other State agencies shall defer to the principal agency in the performance of their duties in this area, or upon a particular project with respect to procedures, forms, and deadlines, subject to the conditions specified in law. This designation does not apply to the process of any permits pursuant to Division 34 of the Public Resources Code. No part of this order shall be construed to limit the authority of any agency to hold public hearings on any matter within its jurisdiction, and no part of this order shall be construed to authorize any State agency to adopt or implement procedures, forms or deadlines in conflict with those exactly specified in statute or in conflict with the Administrative Procedure Act. Nothing in this order shall be construed to confer upon any State agency decision making authority over substantive matter within another agency's jurisdiction, including any informational and public hearing requirements need to make regulatory and permitting decisions. This order does not apply to any court or office of the judicial branch of government.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 10th day of December 1996.

ORIGINAL SIGNED BY GOVERNOR PETE WILSON