IMPROVING NONCANCER RISK ASSESSMENT IN REGULATORY DECISIONS

The Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 will bring substantial changes to the national drinking water utilities, States, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), as well as greater protectio n and information to the 240 million Americans served by public water systems. These changes comprise a balanced, integrated framework of re form, and represent a major national commitment to new and stronger ap proaches to prevent contamination; better information for consumers; a nd regulatory improvements, including better science, prioritization o f effort, risk assessment, management and communication. Specifically, the Amendments require the use of the best available, peer-reviewed s cience and supporting studies conducted in accordance with sound and o bjective scientific practices. The 1995 USEPA Risk Characterization Po licy satisfies some of these requirements since it must feature values such as transparency in decision making process; clarity in communica ting with each other and the public regarding environmental risks and uncertainties associated with risks; and consistency across USEPA Prog ram Offices/Regions in core assumptions and science policies, which ar e well grounded in science and are reasonable. Furthermore, USEPA need s to explore new and improved noncancer risk assessment approaches in setting scientifically sound and defensible drinking water standards.