VCCEP Pilot: Progress on Evaluating Children's Risks and Data Needs

Abstract

The Voluntary Children's Chemical Evaluation Program (VCCEP) is designed to provide information to the public on children's potential health risks associated with chemical exposures. The key question of the VCCEP is whether the potential hazards, exposures, and risks to children have been adequately characterized, and, if not, what additional data are necessary. To answer this question, manufacturers or importers of 23 chemicals were asked by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) to sponsor their chemicals in the first tier of a pilot program. These chemicals were selected for evaluation because they have been found as contaminants in human tissue or fluids (adipose tissue, blood, breath, breast milk, or urine); food and water children may eat and drink; or air children may breathe (including residential or school air). Under the VCCEP framework, sponsoring companies agree to prepare Tier 1 hazard, exposure, and risk assessments on the individual chemicals, and identify the need for additional data. These assessment documents are submitted to the U.S. EPA and subsequently undergo review by experts in an independent peer consultation meeting that is open to the public. Following this peer consultation process, the U.S. EPA reviews each submission and makes a data-needs determination, which may include requesting further data collection or generation by the sponsor. Sponsoring companies then decide whether to volunteer for the next tier and collect or generate the requested data. The purpose of this article is to describe the VCCEP process and to review and present the key findings from the first set of chemicals that have been fully or partially evaluated under the pilot program (vinylidene chloride, decabromodiphenyl ether, pentabromodiphenyl ether, octabromodiphenyl ether, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, decane, undecane, and dodecane). Specifically, we provide a brief summary of the sponsors' submissions, the peer consultation panels' discussions, and the U.S. EPA's data-needs decisions. Although we do not attempt to conduct independent analyses of the underlying data, we do identify a number of common themes that have emerged during implementation of the pilot program and discuss several key issues that could become important in the future. The information presented here should be useful for various parties interested in the progress of the VCCEP and the results of the initial (Tier 1) children's assessments.

Risk Policies in the United States: Definition and Characteristics Based on a Scoping Review of the Literature

“…Among the negative consequences of the events or risks in the cases we studied, health problems were the most frequently noted . The authors mainly describe the risk of contagion and death associated with the events.…”

“…Experts are contacted or provide more information before and during the emergence of the problem than after the occurrence of the risk. The information produced by experts, for example, includes scientific discoveries or knowledge, scientific opinions or reports, and surveys that document public perceptions about the object at the center of a policy …”

“…The debates focus more on ways to deal with and overcome the risk (82%) than on its existence or consequences (27%). While participatory processes are increasingly likely to be analyzed in order to reconcile the often divergent positions of citizens, experts, and decisionmakers, we note that this participatory trend is not present in our sample, since fewer than one‐fifth of the articles examined mention the existence of a participatory mechanism such as public hearings, citizen advisory boards, citizen juries, consensus conferences, public focus groups, or “peer consultation meetings open to the public and all interested parties (who want) to submit technical comments.” The use of participatory mechanisms is connected to the existence of a controversy about the risk studied, mainly when the debate focuses on ways to overcome the risk. It is also interesting to note that in five of the six cases in which a participatory mechanism existed, the article mentions that experts were consulted to provide information on the critical event or problem.…”

“…More specifically, the risks involved transportation issues, (28,31) food issues, (32,33) energy issues, (34,35) including nuclear, (34) or cutting-edge scientific developments such as nanotechnologies. (36) Chemical risks (37) and industrial risks connected with contaminated soil formed a large part of the sample. (24,(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43) Apart from technological and industrial risks, the authors were interested in natural risks, sometimes in the "Act of God" category.…”

Identifying important life stages for monitoring and assessing risks from exposures to environmental contaminants: Results of a World Health Organization review

“…Some literature has been produced on the problems encountered in existing cohort studies, from the type of variable collected, the range of issues considered and the design of collection tools and questionnaires to analysis and interpretation (Barr et al, 2005, Bradman and Whyatt, 2005, Cohen Hubal et al, 2000, Dietrich et al, 2005, Landrigan et al, 2004, Luo et al, 2010, Needham and Sexton, 2000, Samet, 2004, Savitz and Harlow, 1991, Williams et al, 2006, Wilson et al, 2004). …”