New IRIS Summary and Toxicological Review for Acetonitrile has been added to the IRIS web site.

21 January 1999

Minor revisions to the IRIS Summary and Toxicological Review for Barium and Compounds

16 December 1998

On November 19, 1998 residual web-conversion dates of 3/1/1997 and 4/1/1997 were removed from the top of individual substance files. These dates will be replaced with correct dates for the last revision for each file. The replacement process will take several months. Readers should consult the Revision History [Section VII] of each substance file for the date of the most recent revision.

10 December 1998

EPA's 1999 IRIS agenda and request for information was published in the Federal Register Dec. 10, 1998 [63 FR 68285]. Click here to view the Federal Register notice.

19 November 1998

The 2 digit dates within the substance files have been updated to 4 digits. Although EPA has certified IRIS as Y2K-compliant, the change to 4-digit years makes the system consistent with other EPA Y2K actions.

16 October 1998

The summary for benzene has been revised with a new inhalation carcinogenicity assessment.

30 September 1998

New IRIS Toxicological Review for Naphthalene has been added to the IRIS web site. This assessment was developed as part of EPA's IRIS Pilot Program.

17 September 1998

New IRIS Summary for Naphthalene has been added to the IRIS web site. This assessment was developed as part of EPA's IRIS Pilot Program.

3 September 1998

New IRIS Summaries and Toxicological Reviews for Chromium(III) and Chromium(VI) have been added to the IRIS web site. These assessments were developed as part of EPA's IRIS Pilot Program.

13 July 1998 - Stand Alone (Downloadable) IRIS database

This feature is designed for users interested in having a copy of the entire IRIS web site on their local hard drives. We are making this available in response to the needs of users traveling or with intermittent internet access. For more information on the IRIS Stand Alone version Click here.

11 June 1998 - "Table of Contents" Feature

A format improvement has been made to all substance files. There is now a short "Table of Contents" at the beginning of each substance file with direct LINKS to individual sections of the file. This enables the user to go directly to various sections [e.g., carcinogenicity section] without scrolling through the entire file.

In addition, there is a new title block design, and all the section headings have been highlighted to improve reading and navigation.

30 April 1998

The support document for 1,3,5-Trinitrobenzene was replaced with format corrections. This Adobe* PDF file is 34 Pages, 94 Kbytes.

24 April 1998

A New IRIS Toxicological Review for Beryllium and compounds is now available and was also added to the List of Available IRIS Toxicological Reviews Page. This Adobe* PDF file is 94 Pages, 320 Kbytes.

10 April 1998

Discussion has been added to Section II.B.3 of the arsenic file (Additional Comments - Carcinogenicity, Oral Exposure). This is the only change to the arsenic file being made under EPA's IRIS Pilot.

3 April 1998

A new IRIS summary for Beryllium and compounds has been added to the IRIS web site.

30 March 1998

A new IRIS summary for Barium and Compounds and a new IRIS Toxicological Review for Barium and Compounds has been added to the IRIS web site. The List of Available IRIS Toxicological Reviews Page has also been updated. This Adobe* PDF file is 50 Pages, 151 Kbytes.

13 March 1998

The New IRIS Toxicological Review for Bentazon (Basagran) is now available and was also added to the List of Available IRIS Toxicological Reviews Page. This Adobe* PDF file is 31 Pages, 82 Kbytes.

12 March 1998

The New IRIS Toxicological Review for Methyl methacrylate is now available and was also added to the List of Available IRIS Toxicological Reviews Page. This Adobe* PDF file is 83 Pages, 275 Kbytes.

2 March 1998

New IRIS summaries for Methyl methacrylate and Bentazon were added 2 March 1998. Methyl methacrylate is a substance newly added to IRIS. The Toxicological Reviews for these substances will be added later this month, as will summaries and Toxicological Reviews for barium and beryllium. These files are developed under the IRIS Pilot Project.

We have been making minor adjustments to files converted on 7 February 1998 that had conversion problems. If you notice any problems with files or navigation in IRIS, please call them to the attention of the Webmaster at: Iris.Webmaster@epa.gov. Your comments are always welcome.

IMPORTANT!

This IRIS web site and EPA's internal PC-based IRIS2 system have been running in parallel since March 1997. The scientific content of the two systems has been the same during this ramp-up period for the web site. Effective 7 February 1998, this web site is EPA's central location for IRIS. The PC-based IRIS2 system will not be updated after 2 February 1998. We made this change to improve the efficiency and flexibility of the system and speed our delivery of IRIS to you. This web site will be updated continuously as new information is produced for IRIS. Check this "What's New" file frequently for new information.

Several improvements are effective today:

• IRIS Search. The substance files have been converted from .dat to .HTMl format, which allows use of the EPA server's Verity SEARCH engine. This allows you to SEARCH the entire IRIS data base for SEARCH words present in any of the files. The SEARCH engine will present a list of LINKS to files that met your SEARCH criteria. Once you have opened an individual file, your browser's SEARCH engine (e,g., Netscape's "find in file" command under the "edit" menu) can be used to SEARCH within that file. By the end of February 1998, you will also have the ability to go from the top of a substance file directly to the RfD, RfC, and carcinogenicity sections. Other SEARCH improvements are underway and will be announced here when available. Searching may be unstable in early February while we fine-tune the new capabilities.
  
  
• Substance file format conversion. Until now, the substance files were ASCII text files (.DAT format). Some users of Microsoft Internet Explorer and America Online had difficulty reading this format with their browser. All of the substance files are now converted to HTML (.HTM format) files. We hope this will eliminate the problems some of our users were encountering. (Note: For those users who prefer or need .DAT plain text files, they can still be accessed from this link.)
  
  
• Chlordane. The revised chlordane file is now loaded. Note that the companion Toxicological Review for chlordane was loaded December 1997.
  
  
• Methylene diphenyl diisocyanates. The revised MDI file and Toxicological Review are now loaded.
  
  
• "Look and feel." We have enhanced the appearance of the IRIS Home Page and sought to improve navigation within the website.
  
  
• One-stroke download. We are working on a quick and easy way for you to download the data base to a hard disk drive for use in your local environment. This is particularly to help users in the field, on the road, and those with intermittent access to the Internet.
  
  
• Methyl methacrylate and Bentazon files and Toxicological Reviews are planned for loading later in February.
  

IRIS Federal Register Notice of 2 January 1998

The Federal Register published the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's document, "Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS); Announcement of 1998 Program; Request for Information." This notice provided: "Announcement of IRIS 1998 Program and request for scientific information on chronic health effects of chemical substances." The text of the notice is available through this link.

Last updated: 3 March 1999
URL: http:/www.epa.gov/iris/WHATSNEW.HTM