[Federal Register: April 6, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 65)]
[Notices]
[Page 17391-17393]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr06ap10-37]
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CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for Office
of Management and Budget Review; Comment Request; Follow-Up Activities
for Product-Related Injuries
AGENCY: Consumer Product Safety Commission.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is announcing
that a proposed collection of information has been submitted to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.
DATES: Fax written comments on the collection of information by May 6,
2010.
ADDRESSES: To ensure that comments on the information collection are
received, OMB recommends that written comments be faxed to the Office
of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Attn: CPSC Desk Officer,
FAX: 202-395-6974, or e-mailed to oira_submission@omb.eop.gov. Written
comments should be captioned ``Product-Related Injuries.'' All comments
should be identified with the OMB control number 3041-0029. In
addition, written comments should also be submitted by mail/hand
delivery/courier (for paper, disk, or CD-ROM submissions), preferably
in five copies, to: Office of the Secretary, Consumer Product Safety
Commission, Room 502, 4330 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814;
telephone (301) 504-7923.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Linda L. Glatz, Division of Policy and
Planning, Office of Information Technology, Consumer Product Safety
Commission, 4330 East West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814, (301) 504-7671.
lglatz@cpsc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In compliance with 44 U.S.C. 3507, the CPSC
has submitted the following proposed collection of information to OMB
for review and clearance. Follow-up Activities for Product-Related
Injuries (OMB Control Number 3041-0029--Extension).
Section 5(a) of the Consumer Product Safety Act, 15 U.S.C. 2054(a),
requires the Commission to collect information related to the causes
and prevention of death, injury, and illness associated with consumer
products. That section also requires the Commission to conduct
continuing studies and investigations of deaths, injuries, diseases,
other health impairments, and
[[Page 17392]]
economic losses resulting from accidents involving consumer products.
The Commission obtains information about product-related deaths,
injuries, and illnesses from a variety of sources, including
newspapers, death certificates, consumer complaints, and medical
facilities. In addition, the Commission receives information through
its internet Web site through forms reporting on product-related
injuries or incidents.
From these sources, the Commission staff selects cases of interest
for further investigation by face-to-face or telephone interviews with
persons who witnessed or were injured in incidents involving consumer
products. On-site investigations are usually made in cases where the
Commission staff needs photographs of the incident site, the product
involved, or detailed information about the incident. This information
can come from face-to-face interviews with persons who were injured or
who witnessed the incident, as well as contact with state and local
officials, including police, coroners and fire investigators, and
others with knowledge of the incident.
The Commission uses this information to support development and
improvement of voluntary standards, rulemaking proceedings, information
and education campaigns, and administrative and judicial proceedings
for enforcement of the statutes, standards, and regulations
administered by the Commission. These safety efforts are vitally
important to help make consumer products safer and to remove unsafe
products from the channels of distribution and from consumers' homes.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved the collection
of information concerning product-related injuries under control number
3041-0029. OMB's most recent extension of approval will expire on April
30, 2010. The Commission has submitted its request for an extension of
approval of this collection of information to OMB.
The Commission also operates a surveillance system known as the
National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) that provides
timely data on consumer product-related injuries treated in a
statistically valid sample from approximately 100 hospital emergency
departments, as well as childhood poisonings in the United States. The
NEISS system has been in operation since 1971. The Commission
previously has not included NEISS reports under the product-related
injuries collection of information because the information obtained
from hospital databases are obtained directly through CPSC employees
and/or CPSC contractors, and does not involve the solicitation of any
information from any individuals. The CPSC employee or contractor
collects emergency department records for review which are then coded.
The PRA exempts facts or opinions obtained through direct observation
by an employee or agent of the sponsoring agency. 5 CFR 1320.3(h)(3).
However, because in addition to the reports themselves, further
information may need to be obtained which may result in telephone and/
or face-to-face communications with individuals, the proposed
collection of information under the follow-up activities for product-
related injuries now includes the burden hours per year for the NEISS
system in addition to the other follow-up activities conducted by the
Commission.
In the Federal Register of December 1, 2009 (74 FR 62753), the CPSC
published a 60-day notice requesting public comment on the proposed
collection of information. No comments were received.
Burden Estimates: The NEISS system collects information on
consumer-product related injuries from approximately 100 hospitals in
the United States. Respondents to NEISS include hospitals that directly
report information to NEISS, and hospitals that allow access to a CPSC
contractor who collects the data. In FY2008, there were 157 NEISS
respondents (total hospitals and CPSC contractors). These NEISS
respondents reviewed an estimated 3.4 million emergency department
records and reported 371,507 consumer product-related injuries and
5,030 childhood poisoning-related injuries. Based on FY2008 data, the
total burden hours to respondents are estimated to be 41,497 hours. The
average burden hour per hospital is 415 hours. However, the total
burden hour on each hospital varies by the size (small or large) and
location (rural or metropolitan) of the hospital. The smallest hospital
reported less than 200 cases with a burden of approximately 100 hours,
while the largest hospital reported over 16,000 cases with a burden of
about 1,300 hours.
The total costs to NEISS respondents based on FY2008 data are
estimated to be $1.5 million per year. NEISS respondents enter into
contracts with CPSC and are compensated for these costs. The average
cost per respondent is estimated to be about $15,000. The average cost
per burden hour is estimated to be $36 per hour (including wages and
overhead) (Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 2009, Total Compensation
Civilian workers, Hospitals). However, the actual cost to each
respondent varies due to the type of respondent (hospital versus CPSC
contractor), size of hospital, and regional differences in wages and
overhead. Therefore, the actual annual cost for any given respondent
may vary between $2,600 at a small rural hospital and $75,000 at a
large metropolitan hospital which are compensated by the CPSC.
The Commission staff also obtains information about incidents
involving consumer products from approximately 17,415 persons annually.
The staff conducts face-to-face interviews at incident sites with
approximately 915 persons each year. On average, an on-site interview
takes approximately 5 hours. The staff will also conduct approximately
3,500 in-depth investigations by telephone. Each in-depth telephone
investigation requires approximately 20 minutes. Additionally, the
Commission's hotline staff interviews approximately 4,000 persons each
year about incidents involving selected consumer products. These
interviews take an average of 10 minutes each. Each year, the
Commission also receives information from about 9,000 persons who
complete forms requesting information about product-related incidents
or injuries. These forms appear on the Commission's internet Web site,
http://www.cpsc.gov, and are printed in the Consumer Product Safety
Review and other Commission publications. The staff estimates that
completion of a form takes about 12 minutes.
The Commission staff estimates that this collection of information
imposes a total annual burden of 7,724 hours on all respondents: 4,118
hours for face-to-face interviews; 1,155 hours for in-depth telephone
interviews; 661 hours for responses to Hotline interviews; and 1,790
hours for completion of written forms.
The Commission staff estimates the value of the time of respondents
to this collection of information at $29.31 per hour (Bureau of Labor
Statistics, June 2009, Total Compensation, All workers). At this
valuation, the estimated annual cost to the public of this information
collection will be approximately $226,390.
The annual cost to the federal government for this collection of
information is estimated to be approximately $6.4 million per year.
This estimate includes $1.5 million in compensation to NEISS
respondents. The estimate also includes approximately $4.9 million for
354 professional staff months to oversee NEISS operation, prepare
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questionnaires, interviewer guidelines, and other instruments and
instructions used to collect the information, conduct face-to-face and
telephone interviews; and evaluate responses obtained from interviews
and completed forms. Each staff month is estimated to cost the
Commission approximately $13,859. This is based on an average wage rate
of $55.97 (the equivalent of a GS-14 Step 5 employee) with an addition
30 percent added for benefits (Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 2009,
percentage total benefits for all civilian management, professional,
and related employees).
Dated: March 31, 2010.
Todd A. Stevenson,
Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission.
[FR Doc. 2010-7670 Filed 4-5-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6355-01-P