Respiratory Protection

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]

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