This report was prepared by the Subcommittee on the Atsugi Incinerator, a subcommittee of the National Research Council's Committee on Toxicology, in response to a request from the US Navy for an independent review of the Navy Environmental Health Center (NEHC) report NAF Atsugi, Japan Human Health Risk Assessment Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations, Draft Final, January 2000 (NEHC 2000). In reviewing the NEHC draft summary report, the subcommittee also studied a number of supporting documents, including a risk- assessment draft report prepared by Pioneer Technologies Corporation (Pioneer 2000); sampling plans, sampling results, and summaries prepared by Radian International (Radian 1998a,b,c,d, 1999a,b,c,d, 2000a,b,c,d); statistical analyses prepared by Research Triangle Institute (RTI 1999); and quality-assurance reports (IT 1999; UAI 1999). A brief summary of the subcommittee's review of the risk assessment is provided below and is followed by a detailed evaluation of the planning of the risk assessment, data analyses, interpretation of the results of the risk assessment, data gaps, some suggestions for improving the NEHC draft summary report itself, and the responses of NEHC to comments from previous National Research Council committees. Specific examples of some of the problems associated with the NEHC draft summary report and other issues are presented in appendixes.

Contents

• THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
• SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE ATSUGI INCINERATOR
• COMMITTEE ON TOXICOLOGY
• BOARD ON ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AND TOXICOLOGY
• COMMISSION ON LIFE SCIENCES
• OTHER REPORTS OF THE BOARD ON ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AND TOXICOLOGY
• OTHER REPORTS OF THE COMMITTEE ON TOXICOLOGY
• Preface
• INTRODUCTION
• SUMMARY
• PLANNING OF THE RISK ASSESSMENT
  • Objectives of the Risk Assessment
  • Sampling
  • Risk Communication
• DATA ANALYSES
  • Attributable Risk
  • Indoor Air
  • Use of Data from Final 2 Months of Sampling
  • Soil-Trend Analyses
  • Missing Toxicity Values
• INTERPRETATION OF RISK-ASSESSMENT RESULTS
  • Limitations of the Superfund Methodology
  • Interpretation of Risk Values
  • Uncertainty
  • NEHC's Risk-Reduction Recommendations
• INFORMATION GAPS
  • Health-Surveillance Data
  • Indoor Dust
  • Other Data Gaps
• SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRESENTATION AND ORGANIZATION OF THE NEHC DRAFT SUMMARY REPORT
• RESPONSIVENESS TO PREVIOUS NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL COMMENTS
• APPENDIX A Objectives of the NEHC Risk Assessment
• APPENDIX B Air-Dispersion Modeling
• APPENDIX C Uncertainty
• APPENDIX D Soil-Trend Analysis
• APPENDIX E Air Monitoring
• APPENDIX F Health Risk Assessment
• ABBREVIATIONS
• REFERENCES

This project was supported by Contract No. DAMD 17-99-C-9049 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Defense. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the organizations or agencies that provided support for this project.

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.