[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 148 (Wednesday, August 1, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45615-45616]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-18744]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[60Day-12-12QI]
Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and
Recommendations
In compliance with the requirement of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 for opportunity for public comment on
proposed data collection projects, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) will publish periodic summaries of proposed projects.
To request more information on the proposed projects or to obtain a
copy of the data collection plans and instruments, call 404-639-7570
and send comments to Kimberly Lane, at 1600 Clifton Road, MS-D74,
Atlanta, GA 30333 or send an email to omb@cdc.gov.
Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the
proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality,
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents,
including through the use of automated collection techniques or other
forms of information technology. Written comments should be received
within 60 days of this notice.
Proposed Project
The National Voluntary Environmental Assessment Information System
(NVEAIS)--New--National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Background and Brief Description
The CDC is requesting OMB approval for the National Voluntary
Environmental Assessment Information System (NVEAIS) to collect data
from foodborne illness outbreak environmental assessments routinely
conducted by local, state, territorial, or tribal food safety programs
during outbreak investigations. Environmental assessment data are not
currently collected at the national level. The data reported through
this information system will provide timely data on the causes of
outbreaks, including environmental factors associated with outbreaks,
and are essential to environmental public health regulators' efforts to
respond more effectively to outbreaks and prevent future, similar
outbreaks. This information system is specifically designed to link to
CDC's existing disease outbreak surveillance system (National Outbreak
Reporting System).
The information system was developed by the Environmental Health
Specialists Network (EHS-Net), a collaborative project of CDC, the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA), and nine states (California, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, New
York, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Tennessee). The network
consists of environmental health specialists (EHSs), epidemiologists,
and laboratorians. The EHS-Net has developed a standardized protocol
for identifying, reporting, and analyzing data relevant to foodborne
illness outbreak environmental assessments.
While conducting environmental assessments during outbreak
investigations is routine for food safety program officials, reporting
information from the environmental assessments to CDC is not routine.
Thus, state, local, tribal, and territorial food safety program
officials are the respondents for this data collection--one official
from each participating program will report environmental assessment
data on outbreaks. These programs are typically located in public
health or agriculture agencies. There are approximately 3,000 such
agencies in the United States. Thus, although it is not possible to
determine how many programs will choose to participate, as NVEAIS is
voluntary, the maximum potential number of program respondents is
approximately 3,000.
These programs will be reporting data on outbreaks, not their
programs or personnel. It is not possible to determine exactly how many
outbreaks will occur in the future, nor where they will occur. However,
we can estimate that, based on existing data, a maximum of 1,400
foodborne illness outbreaks will occur annually. Only programs in the
jurisdictions in which these outbreaks occur would report to NVEAIS.
Thus, not every program will respond every year. Consequently, the
respondent burden estimate is based on the number of outbreaks likely
to occur each year. Assuming each outbreak occurs in a different
jurisdiction, there will be one respondent per outbreak.
There are two activities associated with NVEAIS that require a
burden estimate. The first is entering all requested environmental
assessment data into NVEAIS. This will be done once for each outbreak.
This will take approximately 2 hours per outbreak.
The second activity is the manager interview that will be conducted
at each establishment associated with an outbreak. Most outbreaks are
associated
[[Page 45616]]
with only one establishment; however, some are associated with multiple
establishments. We estimate that a maximum average of four manager
interviews will be conducted per outbreak. Each interview will take
about 20 minutes.
The total estimated annual burden is 4,667 hours. There is no cost
to the respondents other than their time.
Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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Average
Number of Number of burden per Total burden
Type of respondent Form name respondents responses per response (in (in hours)
respondent hours)
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Food safety program personnel. Reporting 1,400 1 2 2,800
environmental
assessment data
into NVEAIS.
Retail food personnel......... Manager 1,400 4 20/60 1,867
interview.
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Total..................... ................ .............. .............. .............. 4,667
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Kimberly S. Lane,
Deputy Director, Office of Scientific Integrity, Office of the
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2012-18744 Filed 7-31-12; 8:45 am]
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