New regs for Friday: Pajamas, HIV, efficiency

Friday’s edition of the Federal Register contains new protections for children’s pajamas, medical standards for handling HIV test results, and new efficiency rules for certain battery chargers.

Here’s what’s happening: 

PJs: The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is moving forward with efforts on the flammability of children’s pajamas.

{mosads}The CPSC announced Thursday it will hold a seminar on children’s sleepwear to review testing, certification and compliance requirements with manufacturers, retailers, and other industry participants.

This stems from requirements under the Flammable Fabrics Act.

The seminar will take place on Oct. 20.

HIV: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is proposing fewer protections for military veterans who test negative for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

The VA’s proposed rule would eliminate medical regulations intended to protect HIV results from being shared electronically with outside doctors, but only for those veterans who test negative and do not have the disease. The protections would remain in place for veterans who test positive for HIV.

“HIV testing is a common practice today in healthcare and the stigma of testing that may have been seen in the 1980s when HIV was first discovered is no longer prevalent,” the VA said. 

“Continuing to protect negative HIV tests causes delays and an unnecessary burden to veterans when VA tries to share electronic medical information with the veterans’ outside providers for their treatment through health information exchange efforts,” the agency added.

The public has 60 days to comment.

Efficiency: The Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing new energy conservation standards for certain battery chargers.

The Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy proposed Thursday new efficiency rules for certain battery chargers known as uninterruptible power supplies.

The public has 60 days to comment.