[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 215 (Tuesday, November 7, 1995)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 56127]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-27498]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 215 / Tuesday, November 7, 1995 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 56127]]
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
29 CFR Parts 1910, 1915, and 1926
[Docket No. H-049]
RIN 1218-0099
Respiratory Protection
AGENCY: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Labor.
ACTION: Reopening the record for comments on a report by M. Nicas.
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SUMMARY: OSHA is reopening the record for the Respiratory Protection
standard for the purpose of receiving public comment on the Nicas
Report. Several specific areas for comment have been identified.
DATES: Written comments must be postmarked on or before January 8,
1996.
ADDRESSES: Comments must be submitted in quadruplicate or 1 original
(hardcopy) and 1 disk (5\1/4\ or 3\1/2\ inch) in WordPerfect 5.0, 5.1,
6.0, 6.1, or ASCII to: Docket Office, Docket H-049, U.S. Department of
Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Room N-2625, 200
Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20210; telephone: (202)
219-7894. Any information not contained on disk (e.g., studies,
articles) must be submitted in quadruplicate. Written comments limited
to 10 pages or less in length may also be transmitted by facsimile to
(202) 219-5046, provided that the original and 3 copies are sent to the
Docket Office thereafter.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Anne C. Cyr, Office of Information
and Consumer Affairs, Occupational Safety and Health Administration,
U.S. Department of Labor, Room N-3647, 200 Constitution Avenue, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20210. Telephone (202) 219-8148. A copy of the
referenced report is available for inspection and copying in the Docket
Office and will be mailed to persons who request a copy by telephoning
Mr. John Steelnack at (202) 219-7151. For an electronic copy of the
Federal Register notice, contact the Labor News Bulletin Board (202)
219-4748; or OSHA's WebPage on the Internet at http://www.OSHA.gov/.
For news releases, fact sheets and other short documents, contact OSHA
FAX at (900) 555-3400 at $1.50 per minute.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
On November 15, 1994, OSHA published proposed revisions to 29 CFR
1910.134, the Respiratory Protection standard (59 FR 58884). After
announcing an extended comment period on the proposal, OSHA held public
hearings on the proposal from June 6-20, 1995 (60 FR 15263). One of the
issues discussed extensively during this rulemaking is setting assigned
protection factors (APFs) for the various respirator classes. To assist
OSHA and the public in evaluating the record on this issue, OSHA
contracted with Dr. Mark Nicas to prepare recommendations for
evaluating protection factor studies and combining information across
studies for use in setting APF values. Dr. Nicas submitted a report
titled ``The Analysis of Workplace Protection Factor Data and the
Derivation of Assigned Protection Factors'' (hereafter, the ``Nicas
Report'') which was timely entered as a post-hearing comment into the
Respiratory Protection Docket H-049 as Exhibit #156. OSHA is
contemplating using the recommendations presented in the Nicas Report
as an aid in setting APFs for the final Respiratory Protection
standard.
Request for Review and Comments
The post-hearing briefing period recently ended on October 20,
1995. OSHA is interested in giving the public an additional opportunity
to comment on the Nicas Report. Accordingly, OSHA is reopening the
record for the Respiratory Protection standard solely to provide a
further opportunity to review the Nicas Report and to submit such
comments on the recommendations proposed. The Nicas Report recommends
approaches to resolving key science-policy issues related to setting
APFs. These issues include deciding which workplace protection factor
studies should be evaluated; accounting for particle size effects,
respiratory deposition, and below-detection-limit values; and requiring
specific statistical analyses to account for between-wearer variability
in respirator performance, within-wearer variability, between-study
variations, and parameter uncertainty.
OSHA requests that reviewers comment on the appropriateness and
completeness of the issues identified, the statistical methodology
recommended, and the solutions offered for the other issues. OSHA also
would appreciate any additional opinions or information that reviewers
may want to submit regarding statistical methodologies and evaluation
criteria for APF studies.
Authority and Signature
This document was prepared under the direction of Joseph A. Dear,
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, U.S.
Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C.
20210. It is issued pursuant to section 6(b) of the Occupational Safety
and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 655).
Signed at Washington, D.C. this 1st day of November, 1995.
Joseph A. Dear,
Assistant Secretary of Labor.
[FR Doc. 95-27498 Filed 11-6-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-26-P
