Peer Review: Occupational Exposure Limits or Bands for Engineered Nanomaterials

Title of the dissemination: Approaches to Developing Occupational Exposure Limits or Bands for Engineered Nanomaterials

Subject of the dissemination: Statistical analyses of rodent toxicological and histopathological data on pulmonary endpoints for engineered nanomaterials using standard and state-of-the-art dose-response modeling and statistical learning methods.

Purpose of the dissemination: NIOSH has prepared a draft technical report to explore the currently available data on pulmonary hazard of engineered nanomaterials, generate estimates of health hazard for those nanomaterials, identify groups of similarly hazardous nanomaterials, and create and evaluate a framework for classifying a new nanomaterial into a hazard group using only its physicochemical properties. The technical report summarizes the findings in those areas and identifies future needs.

Agency contact for information: Peer.review@cdc.gov

Type of dissemination: Influential Scientific Information

Timing of the peer review: Estimated range of dates from: 2/1/2021 to: 3/31/2021

Type of peer review: Individual letters

Will there be opportunities for public comment? Yes (explain when and how below)
A Request for Comment will be disseminated in the Federal Register in January 2021.

Will public comments be provided to the peer reviewers prior to the review? No

Anticipated number of reviewers: 4 — 10

Primary disciplines/expertise needed for the review: Statistics; Toxicology; Industrial Hygiene; Occupational Health Risk Assessment; Hazard Banding

Peer reviewers will be selected by: CDC/NIOSH

Will the public be asked to nominate potential peer reviewers? No

Have OMB requirements been deferred or waived for this dissemination? No

Will alternative peer review procedures be applied to this dissemination? No

Charge to Peer Reviewers

In reviewing the draft document, you are asked to focus on the technical content and consider the following questions:

1. Does the draft document adequately describe the process for gathering and evaluating the information available on occupational exposure limits or bands for engineered nanomaterials?

2. Does the draft document adequately describe the development of a framework for categorizing engineered nanomaterials by potential occupational health hazard from inhalation exposure?

3. Are the clustering and classification modeling methodologies reasonable for these data?

4. Is a revision to current occupational exposure banding guidance needed to incorporate a band F?

5. How useful and practical is the approach described in the both the user guide and full technical report for deriving categorical occupational exposure limits, and what are the opportunities for improvement?

6. Are the current searches and collection of scientific data sufficient, and are there additional opportunities for obtaining data that were not included?

7. What evidence is provided to suggest that the methods illustrated would be preferred for a new set of (theoretically ideal) data, and/or what has been learned to suggest any changes?

Are there additional comments that you would like to provide?