[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 16 (Thursday, January 24, 2002)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 3465]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-1712]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

29 CFR Part 1910

[Docket No. H-371]
RIN 1218-AB46


Occupational Exposure to Tuberculosis

AGENCY: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Labor.

ACTION: Limited re-opening of the rulemaking record for Occupational 
Exposure to Tuberculosis (TB).

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SUMMARY: The Agency is re-opening the record in the TB rulemaking to 
allow interested persons to review the National Academy of Sciences/
Institute of Medicine (NAS/IOM) report, ``Tuberculosis in the 
Workplace'' and the comments by the peer reviewers on OSHA's draft 
final risk assessment. This record re-opening is limited to the draft 
final risk assessment, the peer review comments on that assessment, and 
the NAS/IOM report.

DATES: Comments and data must be postmarked no later than March 25, 
2002. Comments submitted electronically or by FAX must be submitted by 
March 25, 2002.

ADDRESSES: Send two copies of your comments to: Docket Office, Docket 
H-371, Room N-2625, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. 
Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 
20210. Comments of 10 pages or fewer may be transmitted by FAX to: 202-
693-1648, provided that the original and one copy of the comment are 
sent to the Docket Office immediately thereafter.
    You may also submit comments electronically to http://ecomments.osha.gov. Information such as studies and journal articles 
cannot be attached to electronic submissions and must be submitted in 
duplicate to the docket office address listed above. Such attachments 
must clearly identify the respondent's electronic submission by name, 
date, and subject, so that they can be attached to the correct 
submission.
    The entire record for the TB rulemaking, including the peer 
reviewers' reports, OSHA's draft final risk assessment and the NAS/IOM 
report, is available for inspection and copying in the Docket Office, 
Docket H-371, telephone 202-693-2350.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Amanda Edens, Directorate of Health 
Standards Programs, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Room 
N-3718, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., 
Washington, DC 20210, Telephone (202) 693-2270, FAX (202) 693-1678.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On October 17, 1997, OSHA published a 
proposed standard for Occupational Exposure to TB (62 FR 54160). In the 
proposal, the Agency made a preliminary determination based on a review 
of the available data that workers in hospitals, nursing homes, 
hospices, correctional facilities, homeless shelters, and certain other 
work settings are at significant risk of incurring TB infection while 
caring for their patients and clients or performing certain procedures 
potentially involving exposure to TB.
    Many persons submitted comments addressing OSHA's preliminary 
quantitative risk assessment and suggested that OSHA should use more 
current data in developing its final quantitative risk assessment. In 
response to these concerns, OSHA reopened the rulemaking record to 
solicit data and comments with respect to assessing the occupational 
risk of TB infection and disease (64 FR 34625, June 28, 1999). In 
addition, the Agency provided a draft of its final risk assessment (Ex. 
184) for peer review to two experts in the fields of TB epidemiology 
and risk assessment. The peer reviewers selected were Dr. Richard 
Menzies and Dr. Mark Nicas. Dr. Menzies, Professor and Director of the 
Respiratory Epidemiology Unit at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, 
is a physician experienced in the epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment 
of TB and is a recognized research scientist, having published numerous 
scientific papers in the area of occupational exposure to and treatment 
of TB. Dr. Menzies is also an expert in the use of tuberculin skin 
testing as a diagnostic for infection. Dr. Mark Nicas, Professor at the 
University of California Berkeley and a Certified Industrial Hygienist, 
is a recognized research scientist, having published numerous 
scientific papers in the area of occupational exposure to TB and the 
development of mathematical models for TB transmission. These two 
reviewers evaluated the overall methodology used by OSHA in the draft 
final risk assessment, the appropriateness of these studies for the 
exposure scenarios, the adequacy of the mathematical models, the values 
of the parameters used to estimate the TB case activation and death 
rates, the use and estimates of state background infection rates, and 
the uncertainties associated with the OSHA risk estimates. (Exs. 185 
and 186)
    In 1999, the U.S. Congress requested that the National Academy of 
Sciences undertake a short-term study of occupational TB (Public Law 
106-113) including evaluation of the risks to health care workers due 
to occupational exposure to TB, the extent to which the TB guidelines 
of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are being 
implemented, and the effectiveness of an OSHA TB standard to protect 
workers from occupational exposure to TB. The report that was prepared 
by the IOM, the health policy arm of the Academy, was released on 
January 16, 2001. In view of the significance of this report, OSHA is 
placing it in the record for comment. (Ex. 187)

    Authority: This document was prepared under the direction of 
John L. Henshaw, 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 section 6(b) of 
the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 655), 
Secretary of Labor's Order No. 3-2000 (65 FR 50017) and 29 CFR part 
1911.

    Signed at Washington, DC, this 17th day of January, 2002.
John L. Henshaw,
Assistant Secretary of Labor.
[FR Doc. 02-1712 Filed 1-23-02; 8:45 am]
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