[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 156 (Friday, August 13, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44222-44223]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-20944]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[30 DAY-18-99]


Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes a 
list of information collection requests under review by the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). To request a copy of these requests, call 
the CDC Reports Clearance Officer at (404) 639-7090. Send written 
comments to CDC, Desk Officer; Human Resources and Housing Branch, New 
Executive Office Building, Room 10235; Washington, DC 20503. Written 
comments should be received within 30 days of this notice.

Proposed Projects

    1. Evaluation of the Needlestick Injury Alert--NEW--The mission of 
the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)is to 
promote ``safety and health at work for all people through research and 
prevention.'' NIOSH not only investigates and identifies occupational 
safety and health hazards, the Institute also develops recommendations 
for controlling those hazards. In some cases, NIOSH distributes these 
recommendations about the hazard directly to affected workplaces.
    One way that NIOSH accomplishes this is through the Alert. The 
Alert is usually a six to ten page document that outlines the causes 
and detection of the hazard and recommendations for controlling the 
risk to workers. One of the central goals of the Alert is to educate 
employers and encourage them to take steps to reduce the risks to their 
workers. It is also important that the recommendations in the Alert 
provide them with sufficient information.
    The Alert chosen for this study concerns the risk of needlestick 
injuries (NSI) to health care workers. Although there is not precise 
information about the frequency of NSI in the United States, it has 
been estimated that approximately 800,000 of these injuries occur each 
year. As a result of NSI, health care workers can be exposed to HIV, 
and the Hepatitis B and C viruses. It is believed that the incidence of 
NSI account for the majority of occupational transmission of these 
pathogens to health care workers.
    In the proposed study, NIOSH will send the Alert to one of two 
individuals with formal responsibility for employee health and safety 
in hospitals--Directors of Infection Control and Directors of Health 
and Safety. NIOSH will then follow-up with a randomly selected sample 
of hospitals at two points in time. The recipient of the Alert will be 
interviewed two to six weeks after the Alert was sent and ten to 
fourteen weeks later, the other key individual will be interviewed.
    Broadly, the goals of the study are to: (1) assess whether, and 
under what circumstances, the Alert encourages employers to adopt 
control measures, and (2) ascertain whether the information in the 
Alert assists employers in implementing control measures. Overall, the 
hope is that the study will reveal ways of making the Alert a more 
effective tool for primary prevention. The total burden hours are 294.

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                                                                                      No. of
                           Respondents                                No. of        responses/      Avg. burden
                                                                    respondents     respondent     per response
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Directors of Infection Control..................................             450               1          0.3333
Directors of Health and Safety..................................             450               1          0.3333
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[[Page 44223]]

    Dated: August 9, 1999.
Nancy Cheal,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
[FR Doc. 99-20944 Filed 8-12-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P