Draft Risk Evaluation of Methylene Chloride Will Be Published on October 29; SACC Will Review It in December

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will publish a Federal Register notice on October 29, 2019, announcing the availability of and soliciting public comment on the draft Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) risk evaluation of methylene chloride (MC).  EPA states that it is also submitting the same document to the TSCA Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) for peer review and that SACC will hold an in-person public meeting to consider and review the draft risk evaluation on December 3-4, 2019.  Preceding the in-person meeting, there will be a preparatory virtual public meeting on November 12, 2019, for SACC to consider the scope and clarity of the draft charge questions for the peer review.  Registration for the preparatory virtual meeting must be completed on or before November 12, 2019, to receive the webcast meeting link and audio teleconference information.  Written comments for the preparatory virtual meeting and requests for time to present oral comments are due by 12:00 p.m. on November 8, 2019.  Written comments on the draft risk evaluation that are submitted to EPA on or before November 26, 2019, will be provided to SACC for review and consideration before the December 3-4, 2019, meeting.  Requests to present oral comments at the in-person meeting are due December 3, 2019.  Publication of the Federal Register notice on October 29, 2019, will begin a 60-day comment period on the draft risk evaluation.  The draft risk evaluation is not yet publicly available and is not expected to be until the notice is published on October 29, 2019, and Docket ID EPA-HQ-OPPT-2019-0437 is created at http://www.regulations.gov.  More information is available in our October 25, 2019, memorandum, “EPA Will Publish Draft Risk Evaluation of Methylene Chloride on October 29.”