SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- Analysis/2W7E60-1
- Notice Date
- 6/10/2008
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- Contracting Office
- Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Acquisition Management, EPA/Headquarters, Environmental Protection Agency, Program Contract Service Center, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, Nw, Washington, DC 20460
- ZIP Code
- 20460
- Solicitation Number
- RFQ-DC-08-00189
- Response Due
- 6/25/2008
- Archive Date
- 7/25/2008
- Point of Contact
- Point of Contact, Thomas Martinez, Purchasing Agent, Phone (202) 564-1418
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- NAICS Code: 541620 NAICS code 541620: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to negotiate on a sole source basis with Exponent of Washington, DC. Negotiations shall be conducted pursuant to the authority of 41 U.S.C. 253 (c)(1), which allows for negotiations without full andopen competition if there is only one responsible source. STATEMENT OF WORKTitle:Analysis of NHANES Data to Estimate Long-Term Fish Intake RatesPeriod of Performance:Award to January 31, 2009I. BACKGROUNDEnvironmental pollutants can accumulate in fish tissue. Consequently, intake of fish can be a potential pathway of human exposure to these contaminants. Estimating exposure to toxic chemicals among fish-consuming populations requires knowledge about intake rates of fish and shellfish. Risk assessors need reliable intake data to more accurately estimate exposures to fish consuming populations. In some cases, risk assessors are able to conduct a site-specific survey to get consumption rates that are more representative of the area of concern. However, site-specific surveys cannot be conducted in every case due to time and resource constraints. More often, risk assessors need to use surrogate data from other water bodies to estimate consumption in the water body of interest. Data on fish consumption rates come from various sources. The Exposure Factors Handbook, published in 1997, provides a summary of the available data from various fish consumption surveys (U.S. EPA, 1997). Several key studies presented in the Handbook derive fish consumption rates using data on the amount of fish eaten during a short period of time, e.g., 24 hours. Consumption rates based on short testing periods provide information on consumption over the specified period, but should be used with caution when chronic exposures are of interest. Extrapolating short term data to derive long-term consumption rates adds uncertainty to the estimates due to the intra-individual variation of consumption from day to day. Information on consumption over multiple days is recommended to reduce intra-individual variability and derive more accurate estimates of consumption (OEHHA, 2001). Since the Exposure Factors Handbook was published, additional data on fish consumption behaviors have become available. For example, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), conducted by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has collected data on dietary intake, including intake of fish and shellfish since 1999. This survey provides more recent data that can be used to estimate short-tem intake, but has also collected information on the frequency of fish intake over a 30-day period that may be able to be used to estimate long-term intake rates for fish. Tran et al. (2004), combined food frequency information from NHANES for 1999-2000 with dietary recall data from the Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals (CSFII) for 1994-1996/1998, using a probabilistic approach to generate estimates of chronic average daily intake. In the approach described by Tran et al. (2004), 249 CSFII food codes were mapped into 28 NHANES fish and shellfish categories; for each of these NHANES categories, a weighted distribution of amounts consumed per eating occasion was generated from CSFII intake records. Long-term (30-day average) daily fish/shellfish intake rates were then derived by combining randomly sampled NHANES individual records of fish/shellfish frequency of consumption with amounts consumed at each eating occasion randomly sampled from the CSFII intake distribution.II. PURPOSE The purpose of this Work Assignment is to update the previous study results described by Tran et al. (2004) with the most recent NHANES dietary recall data (i.e., to replace the CSFII data previously used), and food frequency data (i.e., including data collected since 2000). Available NHANES data from several years (i.e., beginning with 1999 data) shall be combined in order to increase the sample size of the data. The analysis shall be performed to estimate 24-hour intake rates and 30-day intake rates for all fish, all shellfish, and all fish and shellfish combined, as well as for individual fish/shellfish species, as practicable (i.e., depending on samples sizes). The analysis shall be conducted for both adult women and children, using the age categories suggested in EPA?s Guidance on Selecting Age Groups for Monitoring and Assessing Childhood Exposures to Environmental Contaminants (U.S. EPA, 2005), to the extent practicable (i.e., considering that a sufficient number of observations will be needed in each age category to be statistically relevant, fine age categories may not be possible). Further, the analysis shall include fish and shellfish intake rates calculated for both ?consumers only? and ?per capita.? The product of this analysis shall be a report that provides a detailed description of the data and methodology used in the analysis, and a comprehensive set of results (including detailed data tables with statistical summaries of the data; e.g., means, standard deviations, percentiles, number of observations, etc). In addition, the Contractor shall provide a draft manuscript for publication in a peer reviewed scientific journal. The paper shall follow the guidelines for publication in a journal that is mutually agreed upon by the Contractor and the EPA WAM and, in general, shall provide an abstract, introduction, detailed description of the methodology used to estimate long-term fish intake, results of the analysis, discussion of the key findings, and references used. III. Sole Source JustificationA sole source task order is being requested with Exponent, Washington DC. Exponent conducted data analysis using earlier NHANES data and published a manuscript in 2004 with those results. The present task is an expansion and update of the previous work conducted by Exponent. It is in the best interest of the government to issue this task order to Exponent to avoid spending additional and unnecessary resources in bringing a new contractor up-to-speed on the details of this analysis. IV. TASKS, SCHEDULES AND DELIVERABLES Task 1: Preparation of Work Plan A Work Plan will be due two weeks after the Work Assignment is issued. This Work Plan shall include the following: Description of overall approach for preparing the reportDescription of how secondary data and information, including QA issues, will be handled Level of effortStaffingSchedule for completion and submission of the internal review draft, external peer review draft, and final report. Task 2: Data Gathering Within one month of EPA approval of the Work Plan, the Contractor shall obtain the appropriate NHANES survey data relating to 24-hour fish intake and fish consumption frequency in order to update the previous study results described by Tran et al. (2004). The Contractor shall combine several years of NHANES data (i.e., all available data beginning with 1999) and use the USDA recipe file, as appropriate, to account for fish consumed in prepared food mixtures when estimating 24-hour fish intake rates. The Contractor shall explore the possibility of using additional age groups other than those described by Tran et al. (2004) to estimate long-term fish intake. The age groups to be considered are those described in EPA?s Guidance on Selecting Age Groups for Monitoring and Assessing Childhood Exposures to Environmental Contaminants (U.S. EPA, 2005). The Contractor shall also explore the possibility of providing intake data for individual fish species in addition to intake data for all fish and all fish and shellfish combined. The Contractor shall hold a conference call with the EPA WAM and the EPA Alternate WAM to discuss the data gathering effort before conducting the analysis and preparing the draft document described in Task 3. TASK 3: Conduct Analysis and Prepare Internal Review Draft Document The Contractor shall perform the analysis using the probabilistic technique described in Tran et al (2004) and prepare a draft report within three months after the data gathering task (Task 2) has been completed. The draft document shall update the previous fish intake results described by Tran et al. (2004) and serve as the Agency?s Internal Review Draft (IRD). In addition to the document, the Contractor shall provide electronic copies of the report and all spreadsheet files used in providing statistical summaries of the data. EPA will review and comment on the IRD document. TASK 4: Preparation of External Review Draft Document Within three weeks of receiving EPA comments, the Contractor shall modify the IRD as directed by the EPA WAM, to produce the External Review Draft (ERD). The ERD will be reviewed by expert external peer reviewers under a separate contract. TASK 5: Preparation of Final Document The EPA WAM or EPA Alternate WAM will provide the contractor with a copy of the peer review comments. Within 1 week of receiving the comments from EPA, the contractor shall participate in a conference call with the EPA WAM and EPA Alternate WAM to discuss the disposition of comments received from the external peer review. Within three weeks after receipt of the comments on the ERD, the Contractor shall revise the ERD to address EPA comments and produce the final document (and spreadsheet tables). The contractor shall also prepare a ?disposition of comments? document. The ?disposition of comments? document shall indicate how the external peer review comments were addressed in the final study report. TASK 6: Preparation of a Draft Manuscript for Publication Within three weeks of finalizing the report described above, the Contractor shall provide the EPA WAM with a draft manuscript for publication in a peer reviewed scientific journal. The manuscript shall follow the guidelines for publication in a journal that is mutually agreed upon by the Contractor and the EPA WAM and, in general, shall provide an abstract, introduction, detailed description of the methodology used to estimate long-term fish intake, results of the analysis, discussion of the key findings, and references used. V. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS FOR TASKS 1-6 The Contractor shall mail one unbound copy of the products described in Tasks 1-6 above to the EPA WAM and the EPA Alternate WAM. In addition, the Contractor shall supply the EPA WAM with an electronic copy of the documents in Microsoft Word or other compatible software. (Reproduction services shall not exceed Agency and GPO limitations). Copies of all mailings as specified above shall also be sent to the EPA Project Officer, Gwen Moore. VI. ADDITIONAL REPORTING REQUIREMENTS The Project Officer shall be notified of any problems or delays as soon as possible by phone, and followed up with a written notification. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. However, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to the requirement by submitting documentation, to martinez.thomas@epa.gov, phone number (202)564-1418, which establishes that their specifications meet EPA's requirement. Documentation must be received within fifteen (15) days after the date of publication of this synopsis to be considered by EPA. A determination not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement.
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