NAS Praises EPA's Efforts To Improve IRIS, Underscoring Congress' Action

摘要

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is praising EPA's efforts to improve its influential but controversial risk analysis program, the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), and even backs supporters' efforts to keep Republicans from consolidating the program with EPA's toxics office, underscoring steps Congress took in EPA's recent budget bill.The new findings from an NAS panel, released April 11, mark a significant change for the program in the Trump administration. IRIS has faced years of critical reviews from NAS and others, and more recently, calls from industry representatives and GOP lawmakers to scale back the program."Overall, the committee was impressed with the changes being instituted in the IRIS program since" NAS' last IRIS review, published in 2014. "The committee views the transformation of the IRIS program as a work in progress, recognizes that this review assesses one moment in time in a still-evolving program, and acknowledges that the IRIS program will (and should) continue to evolve as it adapts and applies new scientific approaches and knowledge," NAS' April 11 report states.