Notice Requirements and "Openness"

It has been alleged that private standards-setting is biased in favor of industry because consumers and other related interests are not even aware that some private standards are being written. A lobbyist for the Association of Flight Attendants objects that he cannot follow developments in NFPA 408 as easily as he can monitor the FAA. The case studies suggest that NFPA is not to blame. In fact, rules concerning "notice" barely distinguish the public and private sectors, much less explain any differences in their approaches to standards-setting. Pursuant to the APA, government agencies publish notice of proposed actions in the Federal Register . Private groups do much the same. In an unusual agreement with the National Bureau of Standards, NFPA actually publishes notice of its rulemaking activities in the Federal Register . UL and AGA notify the public through trade journals and in-house bulletins as well as ANSI's Standards Action .

The case studies suggest that any differences in "notice" rules are unimportant. In the case of woodstoves, for example, UL received comments from more people on its canvass list than the CPSC heard from at its public hearing. In fact, a CPSC commissioner commented at the public hearing that the agency did not do a very good job of publicizing its actions.^[10] By holding regional hearings in Texas and Florida, the CPSC heard from more members of the public in the space heater proceedings, but the number was still much less than those reached by the comprehensive comment system employed by AGA Labs.^[11] In the

two cases where more people participated in the public proceedings than in the private ones—grain elevators and aircraft fire safety—the difference in participation cannot be attributed to procedure. Both the public and the private proceedings were announced in the Federal Register . And in neither case, incidentally, did the additional participation seem to affect the public agency.^[12]