After years of telling the courts that it needed more time to complete its indoor air quality (IAQ) rulemaking, John Henshaw, the assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that OSHA is withdrawing an inactive indoor air quality regulation proposed in 1994.

The decision was reached with the support of major anti-smoking public health groups including the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

In a surprising development, the anti-smoking advocacy group that legally challenged OSHA to finalize the IAQ rule has withdrawn its lawsuit. The agency noted in its notice of dismissal that "a great many state and local governments and private employers have taken action to curtail smoking in public areas and in workplaces." OSHA had made this argument as one of the reasons for not regulating environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in its legal brief after Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) filed a lawsuit to get the courts to make the agency finalize its IAQ rulemaking.

According to the American Lung Association, there has been a 50 percent increase in workplaces that have a smoke-free policy since 1994. Today, nearly 70 percent of employees work in businesses that have instituted smoke-free workplace policies.

OSHA withdrew the rule in a Dec. 17, 2001 Federal Register notice, stating that the portion of the original proposal that was not related to ETS has received very little attention during the rulemaking process. This lack of information on the other areas covered by IAQ resulted in little evidence supporting the non-ETS portion.

The IAQ rule, which was proposed on April 5, 1994, attracted widespread criticism and as a result, the agency subsequently decided that it would not finalize the rule. SMACNA submitted comments to OSHA at that time and SMACNA representatives testified before an OSHA panel on the issue in December 1994.

Since that time, OSHA has repeatedly told the courts that it needed more time to complete the standard.

For more information or if you would like a copy of the 1994 comments to OSHA on IAQ contact David Delorenzo, director of safety and health at (703) 995-4027 or ddelorenzo@smacna.org.