[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 154 (Monday, August 11, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47577-47578]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-20350]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-03-105]


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

[[Page 47578]]

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 Seleda Perryman, 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: ATSDR Rapid Response Registry--New--The Agency 
for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). ATSDR plans to 
develop a registry of individuals exposed to a terrorist or other 
significant emergency event potentially affecting public health within 
the United States and its territories. The authority to establish and 
maintain this registry was given to ATSDR through the following federal 
laws: Public Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 319; the 1980 Comprehensive 
Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and its 
1986 Amendments, the Superfund Amendments and Re-authorization Act 
(SARA); Federal Response Plan; National Contingency Plan; and the 
Department of Homeland Security's Consolidated Emergency Operations 
Plan. ATSDR has consistently been identified as having the primary 
responsibility for the creation and maintenance of an event-related 
registry of affected individuals during the acute response phase of an 
emergency event.
    ATSDR plans to develop and maintain a central registry, named the 
Rapid Response Registry (RRR), of individuals who were in the vicinity 
of a terrorist or other emergency event. The ATSDR RRR teams will begin 
identifying and enrolling victims and potentially exposed individuals 
within hours of an incident, in collaboration with state and local 
government agencies and private response organizations. RRR activities 
are intended to help document an individual's presence at or near a 
specific terrorist or other significant emergency event. This 
information will be used primarily to provide health officials with 
essential information necessary for both short- and long-term follow-up 
of victims and potentially exposed individuals. Contact information 
will be used to provide information to the registrants regarding their 
exposures, potential health impacts, available educational materials, 
and other pertinent news and updates. Follow-up contacts by health 
officials are anticipated to be for the purposes of assessing current 
and future medical needs and providing appropriate and timely medical 
interventions where possible. Subsequent health studies (not part of 
this activity) may be useful to identify potential long-term health 
outcomes in the exposed population; the contact information will enable 
these studies to be conducted.
    A standardized one-page survey instrument will be used to collect 
contact information, demographics, and brief exposure and outcome data 
on all registrants. The same survey instrument will be used in both 
Phase I and Phase II data collection activities.
    Phase I response entails immediate deployment of the RRR team to 
support local efforts to enroll victims and immediately-exposed 
individuals. Phase I RRR data collection teams will be deployed to all 
places where victims and the immediately-exposed population might be 
located (e.g., on-site response facilities, emergency departments, 
hospitals, morgues, public shelters, churches).
    Phase II response entails later deployment of an RRR team to 
conduct a census of the entire at-risk population. Phase II data 
collection methods will include house-to-house interviews, telephone 
interviews, on-line enrollment, media outreach, and professional 
tracing services. If the at-risk population or geographic area is 
reasonably small-scale, a systematic census will be conducted to enroll 
every exposed or potentially exposed person. If the at-risk population 
or geographic area is large-scale, then a representative sample of the 
at-risk population will be enrolled. A brief, optional health effects 
questionnaire also has been developed that will be made available to 
local health officials, if they wish to use it, to better characterize 
the types of health outcomes resulting from the emergency event. There 
are no costs to respondents.

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                                                                                        Avg. burden     Total
                                                               Number of    Responses       per       burden per
                         Respondents                           respondent      per        response    year  (in
                                                                            respondent    (in hrs)       hrs)
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People in proximity to an emergency event: 1-page contact           1,000            1        10/60          167
 form only..................................................
People in proximity to an emergency event: health effects             200            1        20/60           67
 questionnaire..............................................
                                                             --------------
        Total...............................................  ...........  ...........  ...........          234
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    Dated: August 4, 2003.
Thomas A. Bartenfeld,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 03-20350 Filed 8-8-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P