Revisions the EPA made in May 2009 to its integrated risk information system, which delivers information on the health effects of exposure to chemicals, have restored control over the risk assessment process, increased transparency and established a new 23-month time frame for less challenging assessments, GAO has said.
It said the agency now makes its own determination of when to move an assessment to external peer review and issuance, wresting control from OMB for making those decisions.
EPA also increased the transparency of the IRIS process by making public the comments provided by other federal agencies during the interagency science consultation and discussion steps of the IRIS process, according to GAO-12-42.
It said however that progress in other areas has been limited, notably that productivity gains under the revised process have not been sustained; after completing 16 assessments in the first year and a half, the agency managed just four in 2011.
EPA faces both long-standing and new challenges in implementing the IRIS program. For example, it has yet to fully address recurring issues concerning the clarity and transparency of its development and presentation of draft IRIS assessments, GAO said.
EPA agreed to assess the feasibility of the established time frames for each step in the IRIS assessment process and make changes if necessary, submit a plan for how EPA will implement suggestions for independent review from the National Academies, and ensure that current and accurate information on chemicals that EPA plans to assess through IRIS is available to IRIS users.
