§2077 Chronic Hazard Advisory Panels

Summary

The Commission must create Chronic Hazard Advisory Panels to advise about long-term health risks like cancer, birth defects, and gene changes linked to consumer products. Each panel must have seven members chosen by the Commission from people nominated by the President of the National Academy of Sciences. Nominees must be scientists who are not federal officers or employees (but people who work for the National Institutes of Health, the National Toxicology Program, or the National Center for Toxicological Research may serve), who do not get paid by or have big financial ties to product makers, and who know how to judge long-term health risks from exposures in people or animals. Panel members pick a Chair and Vice Chair from among themselves and keep those posts for the panel’s life. The panel makes decisions by majority vote. The Commission must give the panel administrative help. Members get pay up to the daily equivalent of the GS–18 pay rate for days they work, including travel. The panel can ask for and share information with the public only through the Commission. Federal agencies must give the panel requested data through the Commission even if other rules usually limit sharing, and rules that limit disclosure apply when the panel shares information but do not stop agencies from giving information to the panel.