by Caroline Miller, CIH, CSPThe National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) invites the public to offer input on the proposed changes to the descriptions of ‘sufficient’, ‘limited’, and ‘insufficient’ levels of evidence for the designation of NIOSH skin notations. Interested parties should offer feedback by April 10, 2017.‘Sufficient’, ‘limited’, and ‘insufficient’ levels of evidence are currently described in Appendix E.2, Evaluation of data in the NIOSH Current Intelligence Bulletin (CIB) 61—A Strategy for Assigning New NIOSH Skin Notations as:‘‘Data sets classified as sufficient are those that include human and/or animal toxicity studies conducted according to standardized protocols and that provide in-depth descriptions of the exposure conditions and study findings. Data sets classified as limited via the qualitative ranking scheme contain either human and/or animal studies conducted by non-standardized protocols or contain incomplete descriptions of the exposure conditions and study findings. Data sets classified as insufficient include studies that primarily either did not apply standard protocols or did not provide an in-depth description of the exposure conditions or study findings. Data sets that receive the insufficient ranking will not be used as the basis for the NIOSH skin notation.’’To improve the definitions, NIOSH would like to change the descriptions to the following:‘‘Data sets classified as sufficient are those that include human and/or animal studies conducted using standardized protocols and that provide complete descriptions of the exposure conditions and study findings. Data sets classified as limited are those that include human and/or animal studies conducted using non-standardized protocols or that provide incomplete descriptions of the exposure conditions or study findings. Data sets classified as insufficient are those that include human and/or animal studies conducted using non-standardized protocols and that provide incomplete descriptions of the exposure conditions and study findings. Data sets that receive the insufficient ranking will not be used as the basis for the NIOSH skin notation.’’References:Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NIOSH. “Proposed Revised Definitions for the Levels of Evidence for NIOSH Skin Notation Profiles; Request for Comment.” Federal Register 82 (March 9, 2017): https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docket/review/docket153d/pdfs/153-d-frnotice3-9-17.pdfDepartment of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NIOSH: Current Intelligence Bulletin (CIB) 61—A Strategy for Assigning New NIOSH Skin Notations: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2009-147/pdfs/2009-147.pdf