GOVERNMENT
EPA's flexibility proposal gains support
Pressure builds for endocrine disrupter testing
Will EPA soon require testing for environmental agents known as endocrine disrupters? "There is a sense of urgency in ConA proposal to make the analytical methods of EPA's Office of Water (OW) more gress to legislate testing in this area," Lynn Goldman told participants at a hastily orflexible is gaining momentum (see Anal. Chem., March 1,1996, p. 166 A). ganized May conference to map out chemical screening and testing strategies for According to William Telliard of the these compounds. Goldman, head of EPA's OW's Office of Science and Technology, Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic the idea has gained support from such diverse groups as the Chemical Manufac- Substances, said that compounds that clearly show endocrine effects can now be turers' Association, the International Association of Environmental Testing Labo- regulated under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). ratories, and the American Society for However, EPA needs to identify the protoTesting and Materials. Lawrence Keith, head of the subcommittee on environ- cols for evaluating which compounds endocrine disrupters. mental monitoring and testing of ACS's committee on environmental improve"Endocrine disrupter" is a broad term ment has drafted a letter that if apfor chemicals that have been linked to reproved by the executive board would out productive and early developmental probACS behind the effort as well The letlems. The effects are thought to be caused EPA to adopt a novel rat- by chemicals with hormone-disrupting behavior such as DDT. Public concern ing system for comparing various analytical methods according to their quality about these agents has been fueled by the recent publication of the controversial control requirements and to institute book Our Stolen Future, which cites evimethod flexibility in other program ardence of endocrine disrupter effects. Seveas such as air and solid waste eral scientists pointed out that the stronThe flexibility proposal allows testing gest evidence to date is in nonmammalian laboratories to make small but significant changes in EPA's analytical methods for populations. However there are concerns that humans can be affected as well. water, such as adding a solid-phase extraction step prior to a GC analysis. Modifi- A National Academy of Sciences report on the issue is due in spring 1997. cations would be judged by a set of standardized quality control (QC) criteria conMuch of EPA's current effort focuses tained in the proposal. In principle, these on toxicological testing to identify these changes could improve analyses and lower compounds, but Lawrence Reiter of EPA's costs. Currently, EPA's water methods Office of Research and Development said are stringently detailed. that the agency's research agenda includes exposure studies for measuring The new rating system being advocated by Keith would allow laboratories to environmental concentrations of these compounds, especially in wildlife. These compare older methods with newer, flexible methods based on QC considerations. could be challenging analyses. Michael Fry, an avian biologist at the University "[The rating system] is nothing more of California, warns, "The real important than a checklist weighted to points," says Keith. Proposed method quality indicators doses are close to the [low concentrawould be linked to such QC factors as ini- tions att physiological levels." tial calibration and matrix spikes. The entire flexibility proposal is on a tight time schedule. There will be a public Cryptosporidium, meeting in Denver on July 24 to redo the finally package based on the various comments, says Telliard. He hopes to get a formal proposal into the Federal Register by late Sep- EPA's long-awaited and much-delayed tember or early October. With the upcom- regulation mandating analytical testing for ing presidential elections, further delay Cryptosporidium and othee microbial could mean having to re-sell the flexibility pathogens and chemical disinfection byconcept to a new group of EPA adminisproducts in drinking water wasfinallyprotrators, points out Telliard. mulgated in May (Federal Register, 61,
A photomicrograph of a green fluorescing Giardia cyst. (Courtesy of Analytical Services, Inc.)
24353-24388). The rule was originally slated to be finalized in 1994, but problems with the Cryptosporidium analytical method and the recent government shutdowns have led to the long delay (Anal. Chem. 1995, 67, 731A-734 A). Data from the testing will be used to issue drinking water regulations aimed at controlling Cryptosporidium, which in n199 contributed to the deaths of more than 100 people in a highly publicized outbreak in Milwaukee WI. Testing for Cryptosporidium was mandated by the agency, even though the last round-robin evaluation of the analytical method, which used spiked samples, yielded recoveries of only 5 to 21%. EPA claims that it can still get reliable data for its needs with a recovery rate of just 8%. To meet that goal, the Agency will certify which laboratories can perform the difficult analysis. However, with a limited number of labs to handle the pathogen samples, EPA wiil only require that large public water utilities (defined as serving 100,000 or more customers for surface water systems and 50,000 or more customers for groundwater systems) conduct the sampling. Meanwhile EPA will continue to develop the method and run its own surveys for smaller water systems Actual sampling wiil probably begin next year
NRC committee recommends changes in DNA analysis A new report from the National Research Council (NRC), the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences, validates and clarifies an earlier NRC report on DNA analysis. According to the report, The Evaluation ofForensic DNA Evidence,
Analytical Chemistry News & Features, July 1, 1996 4 0 3 A
