April 24, 1997
EPA-SAB-EC-LTR-97-006
Honorable Fred Hansen
Deputy Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
401 M Street, SW
Washington, DC 20460
Subject: Second Report from the Science Advisory Board (SAB)
Lookout Panel: Meeting with OPP managers
Dear Mr. Hansen:
The purpose of this letter is to summarize the third experiment of the SAB's
Executive Committee in carrying out the function of a Lookout Panel for the
Agency, in response to your July 1995 request. This experiment differed from the
previous two experiments in that managers from within a program office supplied
much of the expertise. Such an approach allows the program office to benefit in the
lookout panel process, which is likely to provide much more benefit to the program
than merely responding to the outputs of a panel. This approach seemed a
particularly appropriate way of responding to your request that we serve as
ambassadors to the Agency on futures and communicate enthusiasm for thinking
about the future as the Agency goes about its business of protecting the public health
and the environment. A summary of this discussion is contained in Attachment A.
We believe this has been the most successful of the experiments so far. The
discussion was rich in ideas, most of which came from the program office
participants in response to questions from the SAB members. Many of the issues
raised could be recognized only by those with experience in the pesticide area. The
one limitation of the approach is that it is probably not the best way to uncover
issues that are truly "beyond the horizon". For that reason, we may wish to combine
an approach similar to this with some other approaches that may be more oriented to
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new, as yet unthought-of problems. However, we believe that the benefits of this
approach are high and probably could not be attained by an approach designed
specifically to elicit unthought-of issues. We recommend including some similar
sessions in our ongoing lookout panel activities.
OPP participants in the discussion expressed a desire for some kind of
follow-up to issues that were raised so that the deliberations would lead to some
specific products. In response to this and in keeping with our mission to report
environmental problems that may arise or increase in the future and their potential
solution, we agreed to highlight a few issues in our report as deserving of special
attention on the part of the Agency. The two issues, chosen by the OPP participants
after the meeting, are:
1. Scenarios for the evaluation of ecological risk. This is a need which has
already become apparent and is likely to grow. Relatively little is being done in this
area, since the Food Quality Protection Act focuses mainly on issues associated with
human health risk from direct exposure to pesticides.
2. Mechanisms and structures across Agencies to allow sharing of
information. These are necessary to some extent to carry out the requirements of the
Food Quality Protection Act. They are likely to become much more essential in the
future as the need to do holistic assessments increases.
Sincerely,
/signed/
Dr. Genevieve Matanoski, Chair
Lookout Panel
Science Advisory Board
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U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
CHAIR
Dr. Genevieve M. Matanoski, School of Hygiene and Public Health, The Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
MEMBERS
Dr. Richard Bull, Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories, Molecular Biosciences,
Richland, WA
Dr. Maureen Cropper, The World Bank, Washington, DC
Dr. Joan M. Daisey, Indoor Environment Program, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory,
Berkeley, CA
Dr. William Glaze, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Dr. Mark Harwell, Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University
of Miami, Miami, FL
Dr. Morton Lippmann, Nelson Institute of Environmental Medicine, New York
University, Tuxedo, NY
Dr. Alan Maki, EXXON Company, USA, Houston, TX
Dr. Joe Mauderly, Lovelace Respiratory Reseach Institute, Albuquerque, NM
Dr. Granger M. Morgan, Department of Engineering & Public Policy, Carnegie
Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Dr. Ishwar P. Murarka, Land & Groundwater Protection and Remediation, Electric
Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA
Dr. Emil Pfitzer, Research Institute for Fragrance Materials, Hackensack, NJ
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Dr. Paul Portney, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC
Dr. Jerry P. Schubel, New England Aquarium, Boston, MA
Dr. William Randall Seeker, Energy and Environmental Research Corp., Irvine, CA
Dr. Ellen K. Silbergeld, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine,
University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
Dr. James E. Watson, Jr., Department of Environmental Sciences and
Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
LIAISON FOR SCIENCE ADVISORY PANEL
Dr. Ernest McConnell, National Toxicology Program (Retired), Raleigh, NC
SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD STAFF
Dr. Donald G. Barnes, Staff Director and Designated Federal Official, Science
Advisory Board (1400), US Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M Street,
SW, Washington, DC 20460
Ms. Priscilla Y. Tillery, Staff Secretary, Science Advisory Board (1400), US
Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M Street, SW, Washington, DC
20460
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NOTICE
This report has been written as part of the activities of the Science Advisory
Board, a public advisory group providing extramural scientific information and
advice to the Administrator and other officials of the Environmental Protection
Agency. The Board is structured to provide balanced, expert assessment of
scientific matters related to problems facing the Agency. This report has not been
reviewed for approval by the Agency and, hence, the contents of this report do not
necessarily represent the views and policies of the Environmental Protection
Agency, nor of other agencies in the Executive Branch of the Federal government,
nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute a
recommendation for use.
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DISTRIBUTION
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Chair, FIFRA Scientific Advisory Panel
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