[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 5, 2002)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 9934-9935]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-5160]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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: Extension of comment period.

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

SUMMARY: On January 24, 2002, OSHA re-opened the rulemaking record (67 
FR 3465) for 60 days to submit to the record the Agency's final draft 
risk assessment, peer review reports on the draft final risk 
assessment, and the National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine 
(NAS/IOM) report ``Tuberculosis in the Workplace'' and to request 
comments on these documents. OSHA is extending the deadline for 60 days 
from March 25, 2002 until May 24, 2002, to allow interested parties 
additional time for submitting their comments to the record.

DATES: Comments and data must be postmarked no later than May 24, 2002. 
Comments submitted electronically or by FAX must be submitted by May 
24, 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 comments 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

[[Page 9935]]

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 for 30 
days to solicit data and comments with respect to assessing the 
occupational risk of TB infection and disease (64 FR 34625, June 28, 
1999). After reviewing all comments in the expanded record, the Agency 
revised its preliminary quantitative risk assessment to produce a draft 
final risk assessment. (Ex. 184) The Agency then chose to have this 
draft final risk assessment peer reviewed by 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 test 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 (Pub. L. 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 potential 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 also 
placed this report in the record for comment. (Ex. 187)
    On February 13, 2002, the Association for Professionals in 
Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), the American Health Care 
Association (AHCA), and the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), 
requested from the Secretary of Labor a 60 day extension of the 
deadline for submitting comments. The letter stated that the APIC, AHCA 
and ASM believed that the current deadline did not provide sufficient 
time for a thorough examination of the new risk assessment documents 
OSHA had added to the rulemaking record.
    Risk assessment, as well as the other issues addressed in the re-
opening of the record, continues to be of concern to OSHA, and the 
Agency wants to ensure that all interested parties have ample time to 
submit comments. Therefore, OSHA has decided to extend the deadline for 
submitting comments an additional 60 days from March 25, 2002 until May 
24, 2002.

    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 27th day of February, 2002.
John L. Henshaw,
Assistant Secretary of Labor.
[FR Doc. 02-5160 Filed 3-4-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-26-P