[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 48 (Wednesday, March 12, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11862-11863]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-5855]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-03-50]


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 the CDC Reports 
Clearance Officer on (404) 498-1210.
    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. Send comments to Anne O'Connor, CDC 
Assistant Reports Clearance Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-D24, 
Atlanta, GA 30333. Written comments should be received within 60 days 
of this notice.
    Proposed Project: Special Exposure Cohort Petitions--NEW--National 
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
    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.
    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 selected by Congress 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 proposed HHS procedures would authorize a variety of 
individuals and entities to submit petitions, as specified under Sec.  
83.7. Petitioners would be 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 cancer 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 
majority of petitioners. The form addresses the informational 
requirements specified under Sec.  83.9(a) and (b). NIOSH expects these 
claimant-petitions will comprise the majority of petitions. 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 make 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; to: (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.  83.16, 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

[[Page 11863]]

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 part 83, Sec.  83.9(c)(2)(iii). 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.

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                                                                                      Average
                                                     Number of       Number of      burden per     Total burden
         CFR reference             Respondents      respondents    responses per    respondent      (in hours)
                                                                    respondent      (in hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
83.9..........................  Form A..........              80               1            3/60               4
83.9..........................  Form B..........               8               1          300/60              40
83.9..........................  Without Form B..               2               1          330/60              11
83.16.........................  Appeals of                    12               1           45/60               9
                                 proposed
                                 decisions.
                               -------------------
    Total.....................  ................              90  ..............  ..............            64.0
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    Dated: March 6, 2003.
Thomas Bartenfeld,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 03-5855 Filed 3-11-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P