[Federal Register: August 11, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 154)]
[Notices]
[Page 47577-47578]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr11au03-76]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[60Day-03-105]
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 the CDC Reports
Clearance Officer on (404)498-1210.
Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of
the agency, including
[[Page 47578]]
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. Send comments to Seleda Perryman, CDC Assistant Reports
Clearance Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-D24, Atlanta, GA 30333.
Written comments should be received within 60 days of this notice.
Proposed Project: ATSDR Rapid Response Registry--New--The Agency
for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). ATSDR plans to
develop a registry of individuals exposed to a terrorist or other
significant emergency event potentially affecting public health within
the United States and its territories. The authority to establish and
maintain this registry was given to ATSDR through the following federal
laws: Public Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 319; the 1980 Comprehensive
Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and its
1986 Amendments, the Superfund Amendments and Re-authorization Act
(SARA); Federal Response Plan; National Contingency Plan; and the
Department of Homeland Security's Consolidated Emergency Operations
Plan. ATSDR has consistently been identified as having the primary
responsibility for the creation and maintenance of an event-related
registry of affected individuals during the acute response phase of an
emergency event.
ATSDR plans to develop and maintain a central registry, named the
Rapid Response Registry (RRR), of individuals who were in the vicinity
of a terrorist or other emergency event. The ATSDR RRR teams will begin
identifying and enrolling victims and potentially exposed individuals
within hours of an incident, in collaboration with state and local
government agencies and private response organizations. RRR activities
are intended to help document an individual's presence at or near a
specific terrorist or other significant emergency event. This
information will be used primarily to provide health officials with
essential information necessary for both short- and long-term follow-up
of victims and potentially exposed individuals. Contact information
will be used to provide information to the registrants regarding their
exposures, potential health impacts, available educational materials,
and other pertinent news and updates. Follow-up contacts by health
officials are anticipated to be for the purposes of assessing current
and future medical needs and providing appropriate and timely medical
interventions where possible. Subsequent health studies (not part of
this activity) may be useful to identify potential long-term health
outcomes in the exposed population; the contact information will enable
these studies to be conducted.
A standardized one-page survey instrument will be used to collect
contact information, demographics, and brief exposure and outcome data
on all registrants. The same survey instrument will be used in both
Phase I and Phase II data collection activities.
Phase I response entails immediate deployment of the RRR team to
support local efforts to enroll victims and immediately-exposed
individuals. Phase I RRR data collection teams will be deployed to all
places where victims and the immediately-exposed population might be
located (e.g., on-site response facilities, emergency departments,
hospitals, morgues, public shelters, churches).
Phase II response entails later deployment of an RRR team to
conduct a census of the entire at-risk population. Phase II data
collection methods will include house-to-house interviews, telephone
interviews, on-line enrollment, media outreach, and professional
tracing services. If the at-risk population or geographic area is
reasonably small-scale, a systematic census will be conducted to enroll
every exposed or potentially exposed person. If the at-risk population
or geographic area is large-scale, then a representative sample of the
at-risk population will be enrolled. A brief, optional health effects
questionnaire also has been developed that will be made available to
local health officials, if they wish to use it, to better characterize
the types of health outcomes resulting from the emergency event. There
are no costs to respondents.
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Avg. burden Total
Number of Responses per burden per
Respondents respondent per response year (in
respondent (in hrs) hrs)
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People in proximity to an emergency event: 1-page contact 1,000 1 10/60 167
form only..................................................
People in proximity to an emergency event: health effects 200 1 20/60 67
questionnaire..............................................
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Total............................................... ........... ........... ........... 234
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Dated: August 4, 2003.
Thomas A. Bartenfeld,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 03-20350 Filed 8-8-03; 8:45 am]
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