Suggested changes in federal report on carcinogens to be aired Sept. 15 at public meeting in ...( The National Toxicology Progr...)

The National Toxicology Program will hold a public meeting Wednesday, Sept.15 in Washington, D.C., to discuss suggestions for revising the government's process of declaring substances as known or reasonably anticipated to be causes of cancer.

The all-day meeting will begin at 9 a.m in the Horizon Room of the Ronald Reagan Building, International Trade Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC.

Some industry representatives have asked that their experts be involved earlier in the multi-year process and have repeated opportunities to comment and critique the data on which decisions are reached. Another suggestion is that more time be allowed for oral comments by the public, outside scientists, industry and unions. Although written comments of any length are permitted, oral comments have often been limited to five minutes.

The NTP publishes the authoritative federal Report on Carcinogens, a listing of known human carcinogens and substances for which there is more limited data, but sufficient to cite them as "reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens." Before a listing is published, new research as well as data from older published studies are compiled, and three scientific panels review the data and make recommendations. Then, the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program evaluates the data and the actions of the review groups to make his recommendations.

The public is invited to hear a short description of this process and to comment on suggestions that have been made or that will be made during the meeting by industry scientists and attorneys, academia, and the public, many of whom have pre-registered to speak at the meeting. Among the suggestions are proposals to:

• Expand the use of unpublished data in the review.
• Involve experts from potentially affected industries repeatedly during the r
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