Acrylonitrile

Overview

On June 30, 2011, the draft Toxicological Review of Acrylonitrile and the charge to external peer reviewers were released for external peer review and public comment. The Toxicological Review and charge were reviewed internally by EPA and by other federal agencies and White House Offices before public release. In the new IRIS process (May 2009), introduced by the EPA Administrator, all written comments on IRIS assessments submitted by other federal agencies and White House Offices will be made publicly available. Accordingly, interagency comments and the interagency science consultation draft of the IRIS Toxicological Review of Acrylonitrile and the charge to external peer reviewers are posted on this site.

Background

The draft Toxicological Review of Acrylonitrile provides scientific support and rationale for the hazard and dose-response assessment pertaining to chronic exposure to acrylonitrile. Acrylonitrile is widely used in the production of acrylic fibers, plastics (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and acrylonitrile-styrene resins), and nitrile rubbers, and as an intermediate in the production of other chemicals. Exposures most relevant to the public are inhalation of emitted acrylonitrile in the vicinity of industrial sources, and ingestion of acrylonitrile monomer migrated from plastic containers into food and drink.

History/Chronology

Date	Description
Sep 1987	The cancer assessment for acrylonitrile was posted to the IRIS database.
Nov 1991	The inhalation RfC for acrylonitrile was posted to the IRIS database.
Mar 2010	EPA hosted an interagency science consultation on the review of the draft Toxicological Review of Acrylonitrile.
May 2010	Following a report from the National Toxicology Program, EPA placed the draft Acryolnitrile Toxicological Review on hold. [See June 15, 2010 SAB press release]
Jun 2011	EPA hosted a second interagency science consultation on the review of the selected sections and highlights to the external peer review draft of the Toxicological Review of Acrylonitrile.
Jun 2011	EPA released the external review draft of the acrylonitrile assessment for public review and comment.

Status

Following external peer review the assessment will be revised taking into consideration external peer review and public comments, will undergo a final EPA internal review and a review by a science discussion with other federal agencies and White House offices, then will be posted to the IRIS Web site.

This download(s) is distributed solely for the purpose of pre-dissemination peer review under applicable information quality guidelines. It has not been formally disseminated by EPA. It does not represent and should not be construed to represent any Agency determination or policy.

• Toxicological Review of Acrylonitrile: in Support of Summary Information on the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) (Interagency Science Consultation Draft) (PDF)  (767  pp, 3.6 MB, about PDF)
• Selected sections and highlights of the External Peer Review Draft of Acrylonitrile (June 2011) (PDF)  (6  pp, 50.8 KB, about PDF)
• Charge to External Reviewers (Interagency Science Consultation Draft) (PDF)  (4  pp, 35.2 KB, about PDF)
• Interagency Science Consultation Comments and EPA's Response to Major Comments (PDF)  (14  pp, 64.5 KB, about PDF)

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Document Related Link(s)

• IRIS Toxicological Review of Acrylonitrile (External Review Draft)