[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 112 (Monday, June 12, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38104-38105]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-12393]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
[Docket No. OSHA-2009-0043]
Access to Employee Exposure and Medical Records Extension of the
Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Approval of Information
Collection (Paperwork) Requirements
AGENCY: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Labor.
ACTION: Request for public comments.
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SUMMARY: OSHA solicits public comments concerning the proposal to
extend the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) approval of the
information collection requirements specified in the Access to Employee
Exposure and Medical Records.
DATES: Comments must be submitted (postmarked, sent, or received) by
August 11, 2023.
ADDRESSES:
Electronically: You may submit comments and attachments
electronically at http://www.regulations.gov, which is the Federal
eRulemaking Portal. Follow the instructions online for submitting
comments.
Docket: To read or download comments or other material in the
docket, go to http://www.regulations.gov. Documents in the docket are
listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index; however, some
information (e.g., copyrighted material) is not publicly available to
read or download through the website. All submissions, including
copyrighted material, are available for inspection through the OSHA
Docket Office. Contact the OSHA Docket Office at (202) 693-2350 (TTY
(877) 889-5627) for assistance in locating docket submissions.
Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and OSHA
docket number (OSHA-2009-0043) for the Information Collection Request
(ICR). OSHA will place all comments, including any personal
information, in the public docket, which may be made available online.
Therefore, OSHA cautions interested parties about submitting personal
information such as social security numbers and birthdates.
For further information on submitting comments, see the ``Public
Participation'' heading in the section of this notice titled
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Seleda Perryman or Theda Kenney,
Directorate of Standards and Guidance, OSHA, U.S. Department of Labor;
telephone (202) 693-2222.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Department of Labor, as part of the continuing effort to reduce
paperwork and respondent (i.e., employer) burden, conducts a
preclearance consultation program to provide the public with an
opportunity to comment on proposed and continuing information
collection requirements in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act
of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). This program ensures that
information is in the desired format, reporting burden (time and costs)
is minimal, the collection instruments are clearly understood, and
OSHA's estimate of the information collection burden is accurate. The
Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act) (29 U.S.C. 651 et
seq.) authorizes information collection by employers as necessary or
appropriate for enforcement of the OSH Act or for developing
information regarding the causes and prevention of occupational
injuries, illnesses, and accidents (29 U.S.C. 657). The OSH Act also
requires that OSHA obtain such information with minimum burden upon
employers, especially those operating small businesses, and to reduce
to the maximum extent feasible unnecessary duplication of effort in
obtaining information (29 U.S.C. 657).
The following sections describe who uses the information collected
under each requirement, as well as how they use it.
Under the authority granted by the OSH Act, OSHA published a health
regulation governing access to employee exposure monitoring data and
medical records. This regulation does not require employers to collect
any information or to establish any new systems of records. Rather, it
requires that employers provide workers, their designated
representatives, and OSHA with access to employee exposure monitoring
and medical records, and any analyses resulting from these records that
employers must maintain under OSHA's toxic chemical and harmful
physical agent standards. In this regard, the regulation specifies
requirements for record access, record retention, worker information,
trade secret management, and record transfer. Accordingly, the agency
attributes the burden hours and costs associated with exposure
monitoring and measurement, medical surveillance, and the other
activities required to generate the data governed by the regulation to
the standards that specify these activities; therefore, OSHA did not
include these burden hours and costs in this ICR.
Access to exposure and medical information enables employees and
their designated representatives to become directly involved in
identifying and controlling occupational health hazards, as well as
managing and preventing occupationally-related health impairment and
disease. Providing the agency with access to the records permits the
agency to ascertain whether or not employers are complying with the
regulation, as well as with the recordkeeping requirements of OSHA's
other health standards; therefore, OSHA access provides additional
assurance that workers and their designated representatives are able to
obtain the data they need to conduct their analyses.
II. Special Issues for Comment
OSHA has a particular interest in comments on the following issues:
Whether the proposed information collection requirements
are necessary for the proper performance of the agency's functions to
protect workers, including whether the information is useful;
The accuracy of OSHA's estimate of the burden (time and
costs) of the information collection requirements, including the
validity of the methodology and assumptions used;
The quality, utility, and clarity of the information
collected; and
Ways to minimize the burden on employers who must comply;
for example, by using automated or other technological information
collection, and transmission techniques.
III. Proposed Actions
The agency is requesting a burden hour adjustment increase of
60,537 burden hours from 755,475 to 816,012 hours. This is the result
of an adjustment of the number of
establishments used in this analysis based on updated data.
OSHA will summarize the comments submitted in response to this
notice and will include this summary in the request to OMB to extend
the approval of the information collection requirements.
Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
Title: Access to Employee Exposure and Medical Records.
OMB Control Number: 1218-0065.
Affected Public: Business or other for-profits.
Number of Respondents: 790,164.
Number of Responses: 7,342,641.
Frequency of Responses: On occasion.
Average Time per Response: Varies.
Estimated Total Burden Hours: 816,012.
Estimated Cost (Operation and Maintenance): $0.
IV. Public Participation--Submission of Comments on This Notice and
Internet Access to Comments and Submissions
You may submit comments in response to this document as follows:
(1) electronically at http://www.regulations.gov, which is the Federal
eRulemaking Portal; (2) by facsimile (fax), if your comments, including
attachments, are not longer than 10 pages you may fax them to the OSHA
Docket Office at 202-693-1648; or (3) by hard copy. All comments,
attachments, and other material must identify the agency name and the
OSHA docket number for the ICR OSHA-2009-0043. You may supplement
electronic submissions by uploading document files electronically.
Comments and submissions are posted without change at http://www.regulations.gov. Therefore, OSHA cautions commenters about
submitting personal information such as social security numbers and
dates of birth. Although all submissions are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index, some information (e.g., copyrighted
material) is not publicly available to read or download from this
website. All submissions, including copyrighted material, are available
for inspection and copying at the OSHA Docket Office. Information on
using the http://www.regulations.gov website to submit comments and
access the docket is available at the website's ``User Tips'' link.
Contact the OSHA Docket Office at (202) 693-2350, (TTY (877) 889-5627)
for information about materials not available from the website, and for
assistance in using the internet to locate docket submissions.
V. Authority and Signature
James S. Frederick, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for
Occupational Safety and Health, directed the preparation of this
notice. The authority for this notice is the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995 (44 U.S.C. 3506 et seq.) and Secretary of Labor's Order No. 8-2020
(85 FR 58393).
Signed at Washington, DC.
James S. Frederick,
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.
[FR Doc. 2023-12393 Filed 6-9-23; 8:45 am]
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