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: Extension of the time period for submission of public comments on a report by M. Nicas.

DATES: Written comments must be postmarked to OSHA on or before January 29, 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 7, 1995, OSHA published a notice (60 FR 56127) which reopened the record of the Respiratory Protection standard, 29 CFR 1910.134, to receive public comment on a report submitted by Dr. Mark Nicas titled "The Analysis of Workplace Protection Factor Data and the Derivation of Assigned Protection Factors" (hereafter, the "Nicas Report") which was entered as a post-hearing comment into the Respiratory Protection Docket H-049 as Exhibit #156. The original time period for public comment on the Nicas Report was scheduled to end on January 8, 1996. However, OSHA underwent a major reduction in operations and furlough of most employees from December 18, 1995 to January 5, 1996. As of January 17, 1996, OSHA had received only three comments on the Nicas Report in response to 60 FR 56127. To encourage additional public comments in response to this announcement, OSHA is extending the date for submitting comments on the Nicas Report to January 29, 1996. No additional extensions for this purpose are anticipated.

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 17th day of January, 1996.

Joseph A. Dear,
Assistant Secretary of Labor.

[FR Doc. 96-728 Filed 1-22-96; 8:45 am]