2021-07408. Hazard Communication Standard

AGENCY:

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Labor.

ACTION:

Proposed rule; extension of comment period.

SUMMARY:

The period for submitting public comments is being extended by 30 days to allow stakeholders interested in the proposed rule additional time to review the proposed rule and collect information and data necessary for comment.

DATES:

The comment period for the proposed rule that published at 86 FR 9576 on February 16, 2021, is extended. Comments on the NPRM (including requests for hearing) and other information must be submitted by May 19, 2021.

Informal public hearing: OSHA will schedule an informal public hearing on the proposed rule if requested during the comment period. If a hearing is requested, the location and date of the hearing, procedures for interested parties to notify the agency of their intention to participate, and procedures for participants to submit their testimony and documentary evidence will be announced in the Federal Register.

ADDRESSES:

Written comments: You may submit comments and attachments, identified by Docket No. OSHA-2019-0001, electronically at http://www.regulations.gov,, which is the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Follow the instructions online for making electronic submissions. After accessing “all documents and comments” in the docket (Docket No. OSHA-2019-0001), check the “proposed rule” box in the column headed “Document Type,” find the document posted on the date of publication of this document, and click the “Comment Now” link. When uploading multiple attachments to www.regulations.gov,, please number all of your attachments because www.regulations.gov will not automatically number the attachments. This will be very useful in identifying all attachments in the preamble. For example, Attachment 1—title of your document, Attachment 2—title of your document, Attachment 3—title of your document. For assistance with commenting and uploading documents, please see the Frequently Asked Questions on regulations.gov.

Instructions: All submissions must include the agency's name and the docket number for this rulemaking (Docket No. OSHA-2019-0001). All comments, including any personal information you provide, are placed in the public docket without change and may be made available online at http://www.regulations.gov. Therefore, OSHA cautions commenters about submitting information they do not want made available to the public, or submitting materials that contain personal information (either about themselves or others), such as Social Security Numbers and birthdates.

Docket: To read or download comments and materials submitted in response to this Federal Register document, go to Docket No. OSHA-2019-0001 at http://www.regulations.gov. All comments and submissions are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index; however, some information (e.g., copyrighted material) is not publicly available to read or download through that website. All comments and submissions, including copyrighted material, are available for inspection through the OSHA Docket Office.^[1]

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For press inquiries: Contact Frank Meilinger, Director, Office of Communications, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor; telephone: [phone]; email: [e-mail].

For general information and technical inquiries: Contact Maureen Ruskin, Acting Director, Directorate of Standards and Guidance, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor; telephone [phone] or fax [phone]; email: [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

On February 16, 2021, OSHA published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to modify the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) to align with the United Nations' Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) Revision 7, to address specific issues that have arisen since OSHA last updated the HCS in 2012, and to provide better alignment with other U.S. agencies and international trading partners, without lowering the overall protections of the standard.

The public comment period for this NPRM was to close on April 19, 2021, 60 days after publication of the NPRM. However, OSHA received comments from stakeholders requesting extensions of the public comment period (Document ID 0272 (requesting a minimum of 30 additional days), 0274 (requesting a minimum of 30 additional days), and 0276 (requesting extension of 60 days)). The comments state that due to the breadth and complexity of the technical issues involved in this rulemaking, more time is needed to gather data and information and to coordinate responses from organization members to develop more comprehensive and detailed comments.

OSHA agrees to an extension and believes a 30-day extension of the public comment period is sufficient and appropriate in order to address these stakeholder requests. Therefore, the public comment period will be extended until May 19, 2021.

Authority and Signature

This document was prepared under the direction of James S. Frederick, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20210. It is issued under the authority of sections 4, 6, and 8 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 653, 655, 657); 5 U.S.C. 553; section 304, Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-549, reprinted at 29 U.S.C.A. 655 Note); section 41, Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (33 U.S.C. 941); section 107, Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act (40 U.S.C. 3704); section 1031, Housing and Community Development Act of 1992 (42 U.S.C. 4853); section 126, Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986, as amended (reprinted at 29 U.S.C.A. 655 Note); Secretary of Labor's Order No. 8-2020 (85 FR 58383-94); and 29 CFR part 1911.

Signed at Washington, DC, on April 6, 2021.

James S. Frederick,

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.

Footnotes

1.  Documents submitted to the docket by OSHA or stakeholders are assigned document identification numbers (Document ID) for easy identification and retrieval. The full Document ID is the docket number plus a unique four-digit code. OSHA is identifying supporting information in this notice by author name, publication year, and the last four digits of the Document ID.