EPA Releases Report on Modeling Approach for Health-Based Benchmark for Lead

EPA has recently released a new document – “Summary Report of the Peer Review Meeting for EPA’s Draft Report, Proposed Modeling Approaches for Health-Based Benchmark for Lead in Drinking Water”.  This report summarizes the discussions at the peer review meeting held earlier this year where the reviewers considered questions related to model scenarios, model inputs, modeling approaches, and model evaluation for a potential health-based benchmark for lead.
The independent peer review panel was created to review EPA’s Draft Report: Proposed Modeling Approaches for a Health-Based Benchmark for Lead in Drinking Water. This draft report presented three potential scientific modeling approaches the Agency had developed to understand the relationship between lead levels in drinking water and blood lead levels (BLLs) for sensitive life stages such as formula-fed infants and children. The approaches model lead in drinking water’s effect on BLLs using a range of exposure scenarios. All three approaches employ the Integrated Exposure Uptake Biokinetic (IEUBK) Model for Lead in Children.  You may review the original EPA report, the peer review meeting summary, and other documents associated with the benchmark development on EPA’s website at https://www.epa.gov/dwstandardsregulations/lead-modeling-peer-review.
This peer review is one more piece in the extensive data gathering process to support development of long term revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule.  Development of a health-based benchmark was one of the recommendations of the National Drinking Water Advisory Committee.   The benchmark would help drive the actions of consumers, water systems, and local health officials as they respond to elevated lead levels in drinking water.