EPA FACES ADVISORS, INDUSTRY CONCERNS ON FAST-FOOD CHEMICAL STUDY

摘要

EPA is facing concerns from its science advisors and the food industry over its draft assessment for acrylamide - a chemical that stems from fast food cooking and is used in many industrial processes - though the advisors' draft report supports the agency's bottom line conclusions to tighten safety standards for the chemical. EPA's draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment of acrylamide was controversial when it was released for review in December, because it significantly weakened the agency's safety standard to protect humans from oral exposure. The draft IRIS assessment recommends a new reference dose (RfD) - or safe exposure standard for ingestion - of 0.003 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight per day (mg/kg-day), compared to the agency's 1988 RfD of 0.0002 mg/kg-day. The new draft assessment also includes a first-ever exposure standard for inhalation - known as a reference concentration (RfC) and also indicates that acrylamide is a "likely" human carcinogen.