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Environmental and Workplace Health

Priority Substances List Assessment Report- 1,3-Butadiene (Continued)

Appendix A Search Strategies Employed for Identification of Relevant Data

Environmental assessment

Data relevant to the assessment of the entry, environmental fate and exposure, and environmental effects of butadiene were identified in original literature, review documents, and commercial and government databases and indices, including on-line searches conducted between January and May 1996 of the following databases: Aqualine (Water Research Centre, Buckinghamshire; 1990-1996), ASFA (Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts; 1996), BIOSIS (Biosciences Information Services; 1990-1996), CAB (Commonwealth Agriculture Bureaux; 1990-1996), CESARS (Chemical Evaluation Search and Retrieval System, Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Michigan Department of Natural Resources; 1996), Chemical Abstracts (Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, Ohio; 1990-1996), CHRIS (Chemical Hazard Release Information System; 1964-1985), Current Contents (Institute for Scientific Information; 1990-1992, 1996), ELIAS (Environmental Library Integrated Automated System, Environment Canada library; January 1996), Enviroline (R.R. Bowker Publishing Co.; November 1995 - June 1996), Environmental Abstracts (1975 - February 1996), Environmental Bibliography (Environmental Studies Institute, International Academy at Santa Barbara; 1990-1996), GEOREF (Geo Reference Information System, American Geological Institute; 1990-1996), HSDB (Hazardous Substances Data Bank, U.S. National Library of Medicine; 1990-1996), Life Sciences (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts; 1990-1996), NTIS (National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of Commerce; 1990-1996), Pollution Abstracts (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, U.S. National Library of Medicine; 1990-1996), POLTOX (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, U.S. National Library of Medicine; 1990-1995), RTECS (Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances, U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; 1996), Toxline (U.S. National Library of Medicine; 1990-1996), TRI93 (Toxic Chemical Release Inventory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Toxic Substances; 1993), USEPA-ASTER (Assessment Tools for the Evaluation of Risk, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; up to December 21, 1994), WASTEINFO (Waste Management Information Bureau of the American Energy Agency; 1973 - September 1995) and Water Resources Abstracts (U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior; 1990- 1996). Reveal Alert was used to maintain an ongoing record of the current scientific literature pertaining to the potential environmental effects of butadiene.

In addition, a survey of Canadian industry was carried out under authority of Section 16 of CEPA (Environment Canada, 1997b, 1997c). Targeted companies with commercial activities involving more than 1000 kg of butadiene were required to provide information on uses, releases, environmental concentrations, effects or other data that were available to them for butadiene. Additional relevant information was obtained from industry, including representatives of the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute (CPPI). The CPPI Toxic Substances Task Force provided copies of their Technical Dossier - 1,3-Butadiene (CPPI, 1997). Data obtained after March 1998 were not considered in this assessment unless they were critical data received during the 60-day public review of the report (October 2 to December 1, 1999).

Health assessment

A summary of data relevant to assessment of the potential risk to human health associated with exposure to butadiene was prepared in 1994 by BIBRA International. Additional and more recent data have been identified through searching the following databases using the chemical name or the CAS number: Cancerline (≥1992), Current Contents (Institute for Scientific Information; ≥1995), EMBASE (on-line version of Excerpta Medica, Elsevier Science; ≥1985), EUCLID (≥1994), Medline (U.S. National Library of Medicine; ≥1966), Toxline Plus (U.S. National Library of Medicine; ≥1993) and TOXNET (CCRIS, Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Information System, U.S. National Cancer Institute; GENE-TOX, Genetic Toxicology, Office of Toxic Substances, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and EMIC, Environmental Mutagen Information Center database, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; 1997). Numerous provincial and federal government officials and representatives of various industrial sectors were contacted between February and August of 1996 for data relevant to exposure and/or effects. In addition, a search of the databases Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE, EMIC, RTECS (Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances, U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health), Scisearch and Toxline Plus (≥1998) was conducted in order to identify information on the potential carcinogenicity of dimethyldithiocarbamate, in response to the suggestion by peer reviewers that this substance was a possible confounder in critical epidemiological investigations on the health effects of butadiene. Only data identified prior to April 1998 were considered in the determination of whether butadiene is "toxic" to human health.