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AGENCY:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION:

Extension of Public Comment Period.

SUMMARY:

EPA issued a notice in the Federal Register of December 21, 2005 (70 FR 75812) concerning the availability of the Nanotechnology White Paper External Review Draft and requested comments on the draft be received by January 31, 2006 in order to be shared with an external review panel. This notice is extending the period for comments received from the public to be shared with the external review panel for their consideration from January 31, 2006 to March 1, 2006. Comments received beyond that time will be considered by EPA.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is submitting the Nanotechnology White Paper External Review Draft for independent external peer review, which will be conducted in the March timeframe. Following the expert review, EPA will issue a final white paper on nanotechnology in early 2006. Members of the public may obtain the draft white paper from http://www.regulations.gov;​ or http://www.epa.gov/​osa/​nanotech.htm;​ or from Dr. Kathryn Gallagher via the contact information below.

DATES:

All comments received by March 1, 2006 will be shared with the external peer review panel for their consideration. Comments received beyond that time will be considered by EPA.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2005-0504, by one of the following methods:

• www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for submitting comments.
• E-mail: ORD.Docket@epa.gov.
• Mail: ORD Docket, Environmental Protection Agency, Mailcode: 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460.
• Hand Delivery: EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), Room B102, EPA West Building, 1301 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460, Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2005-0504. Deliveries are only accepted from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. Special arrangements should be made for deliveries of boxed information.

Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2005-0504. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included in the public docket without change and may be made available online at www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided, unless the comment includes information claimed to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The www.regulations.gov Web site is an “anonymous access” system, which means EPA will not know your identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of your comment. If you send an e-mail comment directly to EPA, without going through www.regulations.gov, your e-mail address will be automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is placed in the public docket and made available on the Internet. If you submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include your name and other contact information in the body of your comment and with any disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of any defects or viruses.

Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically in www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the ORD Docket, EPA/DC, EPA West, Room B102, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC. The Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Public Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the ORD Docket is (202) 566-1752.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Dr. Kathryn Gallagher, Office of the Science Advisor, Mail Code 8105-R, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: (202) 564-1398; fax number: (202) 564-2070, E-mail: Gallagher.kathryn@epa.gov.

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