[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 77 (Thursday, April 21, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22400-22401]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-9670]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[60 Day-11-0792]
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 Daniel Holcomb, CDC 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 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
Environmental Health Specialists Network (EHS-Net) National
Voluntary Environmental Assessment Information System (NVEAIS)--New--
National Center for Environmental Health
[[Page 22401]]
(NCEH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Background and Brief Description
The CDC is requesting OMB approval for the EHS-Net 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, however,
reporting information from the environmental assessments to CDC is not.
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 and 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, based on existing data that a maximum of 1,400
foodborne illness outbreaks will occur annually. Only those 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
and 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 with only one establishment; however, some are associated
with multiple establishments. We estimate that a maximum average of 4
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 electronic
system.
Food safety program personnel. Manager 1,400 4 20/60 1,867
interview.
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Total..................... ................ .............. .............. .............. 4,667
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Daniel Holcomb,
Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2011-9670 Filed 4-20-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P