[Federal Register: March 12, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 48)]
[Notices]
[Page 11862-11863]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr12mr03-106]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[60Day-03-50]
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 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 Anne O'Connor, 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: Special Exposure Cohort Petitions--NEW--National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
On October 30, 2000, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness
Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA), 42 U.S.C. 7384-7385 [1994,
supp. 2001] was enacted. It established a compensation program to
provide a lump sum payment of $150,000 and medical benefits as
compensation to covered employees suffering from designated illnesses
incurred as a result of their exposure to radiation, beryllium, or
silica while in the performance of duty for the Department of Energy
and certain of its vendors, contractors and subcontractors. This
legislation also provided for payment of compensation for certain
survivors of these covered employees.
EEOICPA instructed the President to designate one or more Federal
Agencies to carry out the compensation program. Accordingly, the
President issued Executive Order 13179 (``Providing Compensation to
America's Nuclear Weapons Workers'') on December 7, 2000 (65 FR 77487),
assigning primary responsibility for administration of the compensation
program to the Department of Labor (DOL). The executive order directed
the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to perform several
technical and policymaking roles in support of the DOL program.
Among other duties, the executive order directed HHS to establish
and implement procedures for considering petitions by classes of
nuclear weapons workers to be added to the ``Special Exposure Cohort''
(the ``Cohort''), various groups of workers selected by Congress whose
claims for cancer under EEOICPA can be adjudicated without
demonstrating that their cancer was ``at least as likely as not''
caused by radiation doses they incurred in the performance of duty. In
brief, EEOICPA authorizes HHS to designate such classes of employees
for addition to the Cohort when NIOSH lacks sufficient information to
estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation doses of the employees,
if HHS also finds that the health of members of the class may have been
endangered by the radiation dose the class potentially incurred. HHS
must also obtain the advice of the Advisory Board on Radiation and
Worker Health (the ``Board'') in establishing such findings. On March
7, 2003, HHS proposed procedures for adding such classes to the Cohort
in a notice of proposed rulemaking at 42 CFR part 83.
The proposed HHS procedures would authorize a variety of
individuals and entities to submit petitions, as specified under Sec.
83.7. Petitioners would be required to provide the information
specified in Sec. 83.9 to qualify their petitions for a complete
evaluation by HHS and the Board. HHS has developed two petition forms
to assist the petitioners in providing this required information
efficiently and completely. Petition Form A is a one-page form to be
used by EEOICPA cancer claimants for whom NIOSH will have attempted to
conduct dose reconstructions and will have determined that available
information is not sufficient to complete the dose reconstruction the
majority of petitioners. The form addresses the informational
requirements specified under Sec. 83.9(a) and (b). NIOSH expects these
claimant-petitions will comprise the majority of petitions. Petition
Form B, accompanied by separate instructions, is intended for all other
petitioners. The form addresses the informational requirements
specified under Sec. 83.9(a) and (c). Forms A and B can be submitted
electronically as well as in hard copy. Petitioners should be aware
that HHS is not requiring petitioners to use the forms. Petitioners can
choose to submit petitions as letters or in other formats, but
petitions must meet the informational requirements referenced above.
NIOSH expects, however, that all petitioners for whom Form A would be
appropriate will actually make use the form, since NIOSH will provide
it to them upon determining that their dose reconstruction cannot be
completed and encourage them to submit the petition. NIOSH expects the
large majority of petitioners for whom Form B would be appropriate will
also use the form, since it provides a simple, organized format for
addressing the informational requirements of a petition.
NIOSH will use the information obtained through the petition for
the following purposes; to: (a) Identify the petitioner(s), obtain
their contact information, and establish that the petitioner(s) is
qualified and intends to petition HHS; (b) establish an initial
definition of the class of employees being proposed to be considered
for addition to the Cohort; (c) determine whether there is
justification to require HHS to evaluate whether or not to designate
the proposed class as an addition to the Cohort (such an evaluation
involves potentially extensive data collection, analysis, and related
deliberations by NIOSH, the Board, and HHS); and, (d) target an
evaluation by HHS to examine relevant potential limitations of
radiation monitoring and/or dosimetry-relevant records and to examine
the potential for related radiation exposures that might have
endangered the health of members of the class.
Finally, under Sec. 83.16, petitioners may contest the proposed
decision of the Secretary to add or deny adding classes of employees to
the cohort by submitting evidence that the proposed decision relies on
a record of either
[[Page 11863]]
factual or procedural errors in the implementation of these procedures.
NIOSH estimates that the time to prepare and submit such a challenge is
45 minutes. Because of the uniqueness of this submission, NIOSH is not
providing a form. The submission should be in a letter format.
There are no costs to petitioners unless a petitioner chooses to
purchase the services of a expert in dose reconstruction, an option
provided for under 42 CFR part 83, Sec. 83.9(c)(2)(iii). In such
cases, HHS estimates a report by such an expert may cost between $640
and $6,400, depending on the scope of the petition and access to
relevant information. This is based on an estimate of costs of $80 per
hour for contractual services by a health physicist, who NIOSH
estimates would be employed within a range of eight to eighty hours to
conduct and prepare a report on the required assessment.
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Average
Number of Number of burden per Total burden
CFR reference Respondents respondents responses per respondent (in hours)
respondent (in hours)
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83.9.......................... Form A.......... 80 1 3/60 4
83.9.......................... Form B.......... 8 1 300/60 40
83.9.......................... Without Form B.. 2 1 330/60 11
83.16......................... Appeals of 12 1 45/60 9
proposed
decisions.
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Total..................... ................ 90 .............. .............. 64.0
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Dated: March 6, 2003.
Thomas Bartenfeld,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 03-5855 Filed 3-11-03; 8:45 am]
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