[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]



 ========================================================================
 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.
 
 ========================================================================
 

  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.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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