EPA Requests Public Comments on Candidates Being Considered as Peer Reviewers for Phthalates DBP, DEHP, and DCHP
Released April 30, 2025
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is requesting public comments on candidates who are interested and available to serve as ad hoc reviewers assisting the agency’s Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) in the peer review of the agency’s data, methods, models, and approaches for the draft Toxic Substances Control Act risk evaluations of dibutyl phthalate (DBP), di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), and dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCHP). This includes the cross-phthalate technical support documents for human health benchmark dose analysis, cancer analysis, and cumulative risk analysis. This request for comments follows the agency’s December 2024 call for nominations of prospective candidates.
Biographies for all candidates are available via docket EPA-HQ-OPPT-2024-0551 and through the SACC website. Comments should be submitted to the docket on regulations.gov. Comments are due May 15, 2025. When providing comments, do not submit any information you consider to be confidential business information or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Members of the public are advised that personal contact information, if included in any written comments, may be posted on the internet.
During EPA’s consideration of peer reviewer candidates, the candidates are asked to submit confidential financial information. This confidential financial information must fully disclose, among other financial interests, the candidate's employment, stocks and bonds, and where applicable, sources of research support. EPA evaluates the candidates' financial disclosure forms to assess whether there are financial conflicts of interest, appearance of a loss of impartiality, or any prior involvement with the development of the documents under consideration (including previous scientific peer review) before the candidates are considered further.
The final selection of the ad hoc peer reviewers will depend upon the scientific expertise needed to address the SACC peer review charge, and obtaining a breadth and balance of different scientific viewpoints across the SACC and ad hoc peer reviewers. The peer review will take place at a virtual public meeting in August 2025. EPA will announce the dates for this meeting in the coming weeks.
EPA is also working on risk evaluations for two other phthalates, benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP) and diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP). The agency plans to use the SACC’s recommendations from the review of DBP, DEHP, and DCHP to inform the risk evaluations of BBP and DIBP because the science approaches used in these two risk evaluations are consistent with the approaches used in DBP, DEHP, and DCHP. Therefore, EPA does not expect the need for an additional peer review.
For more information on the SACC peer review, contact the Designated Federal Official, Dr. Alaa Kamel kamel.alaa@epa.gov.
For more information on the DIBP draft risk evaluation, contact Sean Duenser, duenser.sean@epa.gov. For more information on the BBP draft risk evaluation, contact Brianne Raccor, raccor.brianne@epa.gov.