[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 7, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10217-10219]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-3985]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[60-Day 07-0639]
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 404-639-5960
and send comments to Joan Karr, CDC Acting Reports Clearance Officer,
1600 Clifton Road, MS-D74, Atlanta, GA 30333 or send an e-mail to
[email protected].
Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper performance
[[Page 10218]]
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
Special Exposure Cohort Petitions--Extension--National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC).
Background and Brief Description
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. The only change to the collection
is an increase in burden hours because more petitioners are requesting
to have their work site named as a special exposure cohort. This
program has been mandated to be in effect until Congress ends the
funding.
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 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 HHS procedures authorize a variety of individuals and entities
to submit petitions, as specified under Sec. 83.7. Petitioners are
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 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 form addresses the informational requirements
specified under Sec. 83.9(a) and (b). 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
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: (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. 83.18, 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 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 83.9(c)(2)(iii). The petitioner would assume
the financial burden of purchasing such services at their option. 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.
Estimate of Annualized Burden Hours
[[Page 10219]]
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Average
Form name & number (CFR Number of Number of burden per Total burden
reference) Respondents respondents responses per respondent (in (in hours)
respondent hours)
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83.9...................... Petitioners using 30 1 3/60 1.5
Form A.
83.9...................... Petitioners using 40 1 5 200
Form B.
83.9...................... Petitioners not 5 1 5.5 27.5
using Form B.
83.18..................... Petitioners 5 1 45/60 3.75
Appealing proposed
decisions.
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Total................. .................... 80 .............. .............. 233
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Dated: February 28, 2007.
Joan F. Karr,
Acting Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
[FR Doc. E7-3985 Filed 3-6-07; 8:45 am]
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