The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is seeking public comment on a draft Current Intelligence Bulletin entitled The NIOSH Occupational Exposure Banding Process: Guidance for the Evaluation of Chemical Hazards for public comment.

NIOSH describes this as is a new tool to protect workers from workplace chemicals without occupational exposure limits (OELs). Currently, the rate at which new chemicals are being introduced into commerce significantly outpaces OEL development, creating a need for guidance on the risk on thousands of chemicals that lack evidence-based exposure limits.

This NIOSH docket, including the draft document and more information about the public meeting, is available here. The Regulations.gov docket, for the submission of public comments, is available at www.regulations.gov. Enter CDC-2017-0028 in the search field and click “Search.”

Comments will be taken on the draft document until June 13 and a public meeting will be held to discuss it on Tuesday, May 23.

New topic page

NIOSH posted a new topic page on occupational exposure banding in conjunction with the public release of the draft document. This topic page provides useful resources and information about the proposed occupational exposure banding process. The webpage is available at: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/oeb/default.html