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IRIS Help

IRIS     
List of IRIS Substances Full IRIS Summary   QuickView   

Welcome to the IRIS Help page. On this page, you will find helpful tools to help you navigate the IRIS Website, download IRIS files, and find contact information if you have questions for IRIS. The page provides tips for successful searching as well as a glossary of IRIS terms, list of abbreviations and acronyms, explanation of the QuickView, and link to the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings Browser to help ensure that differences in terminology do not impede your efforts to use IRIS. The page also links you to the IRIS Chemical Assessment Tracking System so you can find out what chemical substances are being assessed by the IRIS program and how far along they are in the assessment process. The page also provides information on how you can download a "stand alone version" of the IRIS files, links you to the compendium of IRIS Toxicological Reviews and support documents, and includes links to other technical documents of interest to the IRIS user, such as the Internet Users Guide . If you have a technical question not addressed on the IRIS Website or you have a comment to improve the Website, contacts are listed below.


For technical questions about the scientific information content in IRIS, please call the U.S. EPA Risk Information Hotline at telephone (202)566-1676, or fax to (202)566-1749, or email to hotline.iris@epa.gov.

EPA is continuously seeking to improve the IRIS Web site. Please send your comments and suggestions for improvements to the IRIS webmaster by email to Iris.Webmaster@epa.gov.


Helpful Tools:
For a better understanding of terms used in IRIS, refer to the IRIS Glossary and Acronyms and Abbreviations linked below. The glossary contains definitions of terms used frequently in IRIS. It is intended to assist users in understanding terms utilized by the U.S. EPA in hazard and dose-response assessments. It is assumed that the user has some familiarity with risk assessment and health science. For terms that are not included in this glossary, the user should refer to standard health science, biostatistics and medical textbooks and dictionaries.


QuickView:
The IRIS Substance QuickView presents a snapshot of the information available in the Full IRIS Summary. It is intended to be a quick reference guide to key carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic data for each substance contained within the IRIS database only. It is recommended that you read the full IRIS summary to put this information into complete context.

The layout of the QuickView follows the same sectional formatting of the Full IRIS Summary, and includes:

  • Status of Data for Substance
  • Chronic Health Hazard Assessments for NonCarcinogenic Effects
    • Reference Dose for Chronic Oral Exposure (RfD)
    • Reference Dose for Chronic Inhalation Exposure (RfC)
  • Carcinogenicity for Lifetime Exposure
    • Weight of Evidence Characterization
    • Quantitative Estimate of Carcinogenic Risk from Oral Exposure
    • Quantitative Estimate of Carcinogenic Risk from Inhalation Exposure
  • Substance Synonyms

Searching IRIS:
For better search results, refer to the IRIS Search Tips page.


IRIS Chemical Assessment Tracking System:
The IRIS Chemical Assessment Tracking System is a compilation of status reports on EPA's IRIS assessments currently in progress. The Status Report shows the user where the chemical assessment is in its development. Definitions of the Milestones can be found below. An explanation of the IRIS assessment process can be found at US EPA's Process for IRIS Assessment Development and Review.

  1. Find Chemical Assessment Status
  2. View Detailed Tracking Report

Find Chemical Assessment Status:

  • The chemicals on the Status Report can be found using the alphabetical list.

  • The Status column tracks assessment milestones.* The Milestones include:
     

    1. Literature Search: EPA health assessors locate available literature on a chemical.
    2. Scoping Meeting: To incorporate Agency expertise.
    3. Peer Review Plan to Management: To determine the resources needed for peer review.
    4. First Draft: The first internal draft of the chemical assessment is written.
    5. Second Draft: The second internal draft of the chemical assessment is written.
    6. Internal Peer Consultation: The draft assessment is reviewed by several internal consultants.
    7. Agency Review: The draft assessment undergoes internal peer review and Agency-wide review.
    8. External Peer Review and Public Availability: The draft assessment is provided for review by external experts and posted on the Internet. Public comment period will also be posted on the Internet.
    9. Final Draft: The final draft of the chemical assessment is written.
    10. Final ORD/NCEA Approval: The final draft of the chemical assessment receives management approval from the Office of Research and Development (ORD), National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA).
    11. Final Edit: The final draft of the chemical assessment undergoes final technical editing.
    12. Web Posting: The final chemical assessment is uploaded to the IRIS Web site.
    13. *Please note that the order of Agency Review and External Peer Review may vary with individual chemical assessments.

View Detailed Tracking Report:

  • All users can view a Detailed Tracking Report for a IRIS Chemical Assessment by clicking the chemical name from the Status Report page. The Detailed Tracking Report displays more information on a chemical's assessment status.


Background to IRIS:
For a better understanding of the methods used by EPA for deriving values in IRIS, refer to the IRIS Background Documentation. Also, please refer to the limitations of IRIS documents.


Toxicological Reviews & Support Documents:
Toxicological reviews and other support documents are available for a number of IRIS substances.

Links from IRIS summaries to specific pages in their accompanying toxicological reviews are available. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader, available as a free download, to view these files. See EPA's PDF page to learn more about PDF, and for a link to the free Acrobat Reader.


Downloadable Files:
A "Stand Alone Version" of IRIS files is available in response to the needs of users traveling or with intermittent internet access. These downloadable files allow users to have full access to the IRIS Chemical Substance files without access to the Internet.


Internet Users Guide
This summary information represents EPA consensus positions developed through comprehensive review by EPA health scientists. Since July 1997, IRIS assessments are accompanied by support documents providing the reader with more detail on the rationale and justification for the conclusions given in the summaries.


NLM's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Browser:
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Browser can be used to help you identify related terms for describing critical effects, precursor effects, and tumor types. It comprises NLM's controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles, for cataloging books and other holdings, and MeSH terminology provides a consistent way to retrieve information that may use different terminology for the same concepts. For more information on how and why to use NLM's MeSH to help you search IRIS critical effects, precursor effects, and tumor types, refer to the full MeSH description.

 

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