[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 81 (Wednesday, April 26, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Page 24487]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-10350]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[30DAY-21-00]


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 Project

    Evaluation of NIOSH Fire Fighter Alert (Structural Collapse)--New--
The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). An 
Alert documents the scientific research about an occupational health 
and safety hazard and provides recommendations for assessing, avoiding, 
or reducing the hazard. The Alert is probably the National Institute 
for Occupational Safety and Health's (NIOSH) best tool for addressing 
risks of great immediate danger involving hazards to life and health. 
Even though the Alert can be termed an important tool, prior to 1999 no 
rigorous test of Alert efficacy had ever been conducted. During the 
past year, NIOSH began the first rigorous test of one NIOSH Alert on 
the dangers of structural collapse among fire fighters. This testing 
was done with a sample of fire fighters, and on the basis of this 
sample, a national distribution strategy for the Alert will follow.
    This Alert contains recommendations with important safety and 
health implications for more than one million fire fighters in over 
36,000 fire fighter units. Morbidity and mortality rates are relatively 
high for this occupation, which increases the need for effective 
communication strategies when reporting safety and health 
recommendations.
    The formative research phase done this year by NIOSH's Health 
Communication Research Branch and Division for Safety Research will 
produce data with strong levels of internal and external validity. 
However, the formative phase is only aimed at designing effective 
messages and not aimed at understanding the impact of those messages in 
the final distribution of the Alert. NIOSH believes that it is 
reasonable to: (1) Conduct an evaluation of the national distribution 
of the Alert to determine its final impact and (2) identify the 
characteristics of those fire fighter units that may not have met 
optimal levels of communication effect (receiver awareness, 
comprehension, acceptance, and use).
    The specific goals of this investigation are to: (1) Assess the 
communication effect of NIOSH recommendations contained within the 
Alert on structural collapse and (2) identify the characteristics 
(behavioral, normative, and control beliefs, and demographics) of 
receivers who fail to meet minimum levels of communication effect.
    A standardized questionnaire developed and approved for the 
formative research phase will be used to assess communication effect. 
Items will identify the extent of receiver awareness, comprehension, 
acceptance, and use of the Alert. The Theory of Planned Behavior will 
be used to help identify the factors that mediate this communication 
effect, and relevant questions will be added to the existing 
questionnaire.
    The data collected in this study will be used to assess the 
communication effect of the national distribution of the Alert by 
comparing the means between the respondents in the formative evaluation 
and the respondents in the national distribution. This data also will 
be used to identify the characteristics of those fire fighter units 
that may not have met optimal levels of communication effects. Total 
annual burden hours are 250.

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                                                                                                       Average
                                                                            Number of    Number of      burden
                               Respondents                                 respondents   responses/    response
                                                                                         respondent   (in hours)
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Fire Fighters............................................................        1,000            1          .25
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    Dated: April 20, 2000.
Charles W. Gollmar,
Acting Associate Director for Policy Planning and Evaluation, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 00-10350 Filed 4-25-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P