Washington — The U.S EPA on June 1 announced the release of its draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) health assessment for ammonia. EPA said the draft assessment includes an estimate of the amount of ammonia a person can inhale daily throughout a lifetime that is not likely to cause harmful health effects, which is less stringent than the current value for ammonia on IRIS. “The draft IRIS assessment for ammonia represents major progress for EPA in implementing the April 2011 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recommendations for improving IRIS assessments,” EPA said. “The draft assessment uses a new streamlined document structure that is more transparent and clear; includes a template for describing the literature search approach; identifies the strengths and weaknesses of analyzed studies; and describes how EPA applied their guidance, methods, and criteria in developing the assessment.” The draft assessment for ammonia can be viewed at http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/iris_drafts/recordisplay.cfm?deid=200305; it will be available for public comment for 60 days and will be sent for independent expert peer review. When the assessment is final, it will be posted to the IRIS database.
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