The National Research Council's Committee on Toxicology The First 50 Years 1947-1997 (1997) / Chapter Skim
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HIGHLIGHTS OF SOME RECENT COT REPORTS
HIGHLIGHTS OF SOME RECENT COT REPORTS
Pages 17-30
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From page 17... ...
(See Appendix for list of selected COT reports.) EXPOSURE LEVELS FOR CONTAMINANTS IN AIR In the 1950s, COT received requests to recommend exposure limits (guidance levels)
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From page 18... ...
The report Basis for Establishing Emergency Inhalation Exposure Limits Applicable to Military and Space Chemicals was published in 1964. COT has always emphasized that its emergency exposure guidance levels are to be used only in situations that occur unpredictably; they are not intended to be used in normal operations.
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From page 19... ...
Most sources release only small amounts of materials into the air, but there is always a potential for contaminants to build up during prolonged operation of a closed vessel. Therefore, since the 1960s, the Navy has been asking COT to provide emergency exposure guidance levels and continuous exposure guidance levels for contaminants found aboard submarines.
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From page 20... ...
In 1988, COT reported the results of this study in Submarine Air Quality: Monitoring the Air in Submarines and Health Effects in Divers of Breathing Submarine Air Under Hyperbaric Conditions. In the report, COT recommended exposure guidance levels for six substances of interest to the Navy: ammonia, hydrogen chloride, lithium bromide, toluene, trichloroethylene, and lithium chromate.
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From page 21... ...
ZINC CADMIUM SULFIDE DISPERSION TESTS During the 1950s and 1960s, the US Army released particles of zinc cadmium sulfide (ZnCdS) from airplanes, rooftops, and moving vehicles in many urban and rural areas as part of a Cold War program to test how biologic weapons might disperse under various environmental conditions.
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From page 22... ...
It proposed lower exposure levels. Before making a decision on acceptance of the human-toxicity estimates proposed by CDEPAT, the Army asked COT to review the Army report independently to determine the scientific validity of the proposed estimates.
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From page 23... ...
This information was used to evaluate the Army's proposed field drinking-water standards. COT also made recommendations for preventing adverse health effects in military personnel exposed to CW agents in field drinking water and for improving the toxicity database on these agents.
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In the report Toxicity of Candidate Arthropod Repellents (1987) , COT evaluated the Hazard Evaluation Program of the Armed Forces Pest Management Board treatment proposed by the Army and provided recommendations on how to improve the Army's toxicitytesting program for pesticides.
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From page 25... ...
, COT reviewed the basis of EPA's MCLGs and MCLs and the evidence that adverse health effects might result from total nitrate or nitrite exposure. Total human exposure to those substances and the contribution of drinking water to total exposure were assessed.
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From page 26... ...
COT reviewed laboratory and epidemiologic data on several major dioxin isomers and related compounds, including their chemistry, toxic mechanisms, and health effects in animals and humans. It also reviewed four risk assessments that had been conducted to establish reentry standards for office buildings after transformer fires.
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From page 27... ...
COT quickly determined that the insecticide dieldrin in the water was at higher than acceptable concentrations and recommended that the Navy seek alternative water sources. The Navy delivered drinking water to the base by air until other sources could be found.
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The committee's recalculations of the potential exposures provided a basis for the Colorado Department of Health to revise its decision, and Colorado allowed the Army to begin destroying missiles in time to avoid violation of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty. In 1995, COT was asked to expedite a critical review of a report by the Navy's Environmental Health Center regarding health risks to Navy personnel and their families stationed near the Jinkinpo incineration complex in Atsugi, Japan.
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From page 29... ...
. The projects address topics as varied as health risk assessments of exposures to CW agents, military smokes and obscurants, rocket emissions, synthetic fibers, spacecraft contaminants, drinking-water contaminants and reproductive and developmental toxicants.
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