EPA’s actions since 2000 to ensure that IRIS contains current, credible risk information, to address its backlog of 70 ongoing assessments, and to respond to new OMB requirements—including increasing funding and revising the assessment process—have not enabled EPA to routinely complete credible IRIS assessments or decrease its backlog. Although in fiscal years 2006 and 2007 EPA sent 32 assessments to OMB for the first of three required external reviews, EPA finalized only 4 assessments during this period. This low level of productivity jeopardizes the viability of the IRIS database. Further, an EPA analysis indicated that many existing assessments may need to be updated, and EPA program offices and other IRIS users have requested assessments of hundreds of chemicals not yet in IRIS.”

AP: “After years of stops and starts, the GAO said, the EPA has yet to determine carcinogen risks for a number of major chemicals such as:

• Naphthalene, a chemical used in rocket fuel as well as in manufacturing commercial products such as mothballs, dyes and insecticides.
• Trichloroethylene, or TCE, a widely used industrial degreasing agent.
• Perchloroethylene, or “perc,” a chemical used in dry cleaning, metal degreasing and making chemical products.
• Formaldehyde, a colorless, flammable gas used to making building materials.
• Environmentalists say these chemicals have been widely found at military bases and Superfund sites and in soil, lakes, streams and groundwater.”