[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 101 (Thursday, May 25, 1995)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 27707-27708]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-12876]



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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: Scheduling of a technical panel discussion on assigned 
protection factors as part of the pending rulemaking hearing.

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SUMMARY: By this document, the Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration (OSHA) announces the convening, pursuant to 29 CFR 
1911.4, of a panel to discuss certain science-policy issues involved in 
respirator selection, focusing on the need for, and limitations of, 
assigning protection factors for respirators by class. This panel 
discussion will take place on June 15, 1995, as part of the scheduled 
rulemaking hearing on respiratory protection. Details on the process 
and procedures associated with the panel discussion are described 
below.

DATES: The hearing on the proposed rule will begin on June 6, 1995. The 
panel discussion is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on June 15, 1995.

ADDRESSES: The hearing and panel discussion will be held in the 
auditorium of the U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, 
N.W., Washington, D.C.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Proposal: Mr. Richard Liblong, Office 
of Information and Consumer Affairs, Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration, 200 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Room N3647, Washington, 
D.C. 20210; (202) 219-8151.
    Hearing: Mr. Thomas Hall, Division of Consumer Affairs, 
Occupational Safety [[Page 27708]] and Health Administration, 200 
Constitution Avenue, N.W., Room N3649, Washington, D.C. 20210; (202) 
219-8615.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On November 15, 1994, OSHA published a notice of proposed 
rulemaking on its respiratory protection standard (59 FR 58884 et 
seq.). The proposal is intended to update the current respirator 
standard to reflect changes in methodology, technology and approach 
related to respirator protection that have occurred since the existing 
respiratory protection standard was adopted in 1971.
    The hearing on this proposal is scheduled to begin on June 6, 1995, 
(60 FR 4132 et seq.), and will last until at least until June 20, 1995. 
OSHA is in the process of contacting parties who have submitted notices 
of intention to appear at the hearing, to confirm the scheduling of 
their oral testimony.

Scheduling of Science-Policy Panel

    OSHA has scheduled, on June 15, 1995, a panel discussion concerning 
technical, scientific, and policy issues surrounding the assignment of 
protection factors (APFs). The panel will be comprised of 
representatives of 6 parties invited by OSHA to participate in the 
discussion, as well as an OSHA representative. The panel discussion 
will be chaired by an additional OSHA official. Each invited party is 
already a participant in the rulemaking by virtue of having submitted a 
timely notice of intention to appear to testify and is already 
scheduled to provide testimony on APFs. Each invited party may choose 
its representative, who need not necessarily be an individual named in 
the notices of intention to appear at the hearings which the parties 
previously submitted. OSHA expects that the representatives will 
possess technical expertise and a willingness to exchange views in a 
constructive manner. The general agenda for the panel discussion 
consists of the issues stated below, and a more detailed agenda will be 
distributed during the hearing no later than June 9, 1995. Questions 
and brief comments to the panel from hearing participants and, to the 
extent time permits, from the audience, will be permitted until the 
Administrative Law Judge adjourns the hearing for the day on June 15, 
1995.
    The purpose of the panel discussion is to provide a variety of 
perspectives on the uncertainties surrounding the choice of APFs, so 
that OSHA can rely upon informed judgement if the Agency decides to set 
an APF for each respirator class as part of this rulemaking. 
Conflicting information regarding APFs is emerging in this rulemaking 
and warrants focused discussion. OSHA believes that additional 
information and viewpoints on APFs would be useful in resolving various 
open questions and in arriving at sensible conclusions.
    OSHA contemplates that discussion topics will include: the validity 
of results obtained from available protection factor studies; the range 
of statistical uncertainty and person-to-person variability surrounding 
the results of these studies; correlations between study results; 
identification/specification of procedures and protocols that should be 
used in determining APFs; and science-policy issues on the role of 
protection factors in a required selection logic.
    In choosing panel participants OSHA will attempt to include, if 
possible, those participants who have expressed an interest in APFs, 
and a willingness to exchange views on the record. It should be 
emphasized that the panel is a device to gather testimony; by opening 
the discussion to a broad range of parties and interests at once, OSHA 
believes that information will be tested, that views will be shared, 
and that the areas of uncertainty intrinsic to these issues will be 
crystallized. For these reasons, OSHA finds that, pursuant to 29 CFR 
1911.4, ``good cause'' exists for scheduling this panel discussion.
    The panel's discussions will be facilitated by an OSHA official who 
will guide the discussion to ensure that the Agency's information needs 
are met. Since the discussion is ``on the record'', and is part of the 
hearing procedure, the Administrative Law Judge will be the overall 
presiding official, consistent with 29 CFR part 1911.
    Although as noted above, OSHA is organizing and selecting the 
makeup of the panel, all hearing participants will have the 
opportunity, subject to the direction and reasonable discretion of the 
Administrative Law Judge, to participate at appropriate intervals by 
making their own comments and by asking clarifying questions of 
participants. During the panel discussion, participants will discuss 
the agenda issues and not repeat their testimony provided elsewhere in 
the hearing. To avoid unproductive, irrelevant or repetitive 
questioning by panel members, hearing participants, or the public, the 
Administrative Law Judge will exercise discretion in disallowing such 
questioning.
    The rest of the hearing procedures are set out in 29 CFR 1911.15-
18, in the Federal Register notices of November 15, 1994 (59 FR 58884 
et seq.) and also repeated in the notice of January 20, 1995 (60 FR 
4132 et seq.) or in the Administrative Law Judge's prehearing 
guidelines which will be sent to all persons who have filed notices of 
intention to appear.

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 (84 Stat. 1593, 29 U.S.C. 655).

    Signed at Washington, D.C. this 19th day of May, 1995.
Joseph A. Dear,
Assistant Secretary of Labor.
[FR Doc. 95-12876 Filed 5-24-95; 8:45 am]
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