H.R. 123 — Improving Science in Chemical Assessments Act

This section provides the short title of the Act as the “Improving Science in Chemical Assessments Act.”

This section strikes section 7 of the Environmental Research, Development, and Demonstration Authorization Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. 4364) and replaces it with new requirements governing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chemical hazard identification and dose-response assessments. It revises the coordination requirement to refer to the “relevant program offices” rather than the listed “program offices,” and it directs EPA to carry out covered assessments of chronic human health effects from chemical substances through the relevant program office, rather than through the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program, beginning on the date of enactment of the Improving Science in Chemical Assessments Act. (Thus, assessments previously handled through IRIS would be shifted to the program office that determines an assessment is needed.) This section requires relevant program offices to use the scientific standards specified in new section 7B and to base assessments on the weight of the scientific evidence. It also requires those offices, when scientifically supported by available data, to assign one or more toxicity values for a chemical substance, including ranges of point estimates of risk and associated sources and magnitudes of uncertainty when supported by the data. When multiple point estimates can be developed, the office must consider all datasets and determine how best to represent the human health risk posed by the substance. This section establishes a chemical assessment database to be maintained by EPA’s Office of Research and Development. It requires toxicity values assigned under the new assessment process to be included in that database and requires all covered assessments already stored in the IRIS database as of enactment to be retained there. It also requires the database to be updated when a relevant program office completes a covered assessment, including when the office changes an existing toxicity value for a chemical substance. This section requires the Office of Research and Development to submit a certification report to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works beginning 2 years after enactment and every 2 years thereafter. The report must certify that each covered assessment completed during the reporting period was conducted using the scientific standards specified in section 7B. This section defines “covered assessment” as a chemical hazard identification and dose-response assessment for evaluating the human health effects of chronic exposure to a chemical substance, and it defines “relevant program office” to include the EPA Office of Water, Office of Air and Radiation, Office of Land and Emergency Management, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, any successor to those offices, and any other office the Administrator determines is relevant. It also establishes a chemical hazard identification and dose-response steering committee within 30 days of enactment to coordinate covered assessments, prevent duplication of effort among relevant program offices, and consider qualifying third-party assessments from Federal, State, international, or scientific community sources when supplementing a covered assessment.