The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has announced dates for two public meetings of its recently established expert panel on key scientific issues relating to the potential health risks of trichloroethylene. The meetings are scheduled for March 23, 2005 and April 20, 2005 and will be held at the NAS building in Washington, DC.

Thanks to the The Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance for the pointer. Their announcement regarding the TCE meeting dates can be found here.

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As you may know, the NAS expert panel on TCE was established, as reported by the Boston Globe, as the the debate over TCE is intensifying:

In August 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency published a draft health risk assessment of the chemical, concluding that it was "highly likely to be carcinogenic to humans." The draft met with a barrage of criticism, especially from the Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance, the trade association that represents TCE manufacturers.

After decades of research, there is no compelling evidence that TCE causes cancer in people, said Paul Dugard, the group's director of scientific programs. "It does a good job [as a solvent] and can be handled responsibly," he said. Given the extent of ground-water pollution with TCE, he said, "we're lucky the material turned out to be as benign as it did."

The draft EPA report was sent to a science advisory board, which suggested corrections. That didn't quell the controversy, however, and the agency has asked a National Academy of Sciences panel to review the data. That effort is to begin soon.

Anyone else feel as lucky as Paul ?

Note: The NAS's link to the project page describing the TCE review is not operational. When it's revived, we will post here.

Update:

Edited post to add operable link to 2001 draft assessment