[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 77 (Thursday, April 21, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22400-22401]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-9670]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60 Day-11-0792]


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 404-639-5960 
and send comments to Daniel Holcomb, CDC Reports Clearance Officer, 
1600 Clifton Road, MS-D74, Atlanta, GA 30333 or send an e-mail to 
[email protected].
    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. Written comments should be received 
within 60 days of this notice.

Proposed Project

    Environmental Health Specialists Network (EHS-Net) National 
Voluntary Environmental Assessment Information System (NVEAIS)--New--
National Center for Environmental Health

[[Page 22401]]

(NCEH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    The CDC is requesting OMB approval for the EHS-Net National 
Voluntary Environmental Assessment Information System (NVEAIS) to 
collect data from foodborne illness outbreak environmental assessments 
routinely conducted by local, state, territorial, or tribal food safety 
programs during outbreak investigations. Environmental assessment data 
are not currently collected at the national level. The data reported 
through this information system will provide timely data on the causes 
of outbreaks, including environmental factors associated with 
outbreaks, and are essential to environmental public health regulators' 
efforts to respond more effectively to outbreaks and prevent future, 
similar outbreaks. This information system is specifically designed to 
link to CDC's existing disease outbreak surveillance system (National 
Outbreak Reporting System).
    The information system was developed by the Environmental Health 
Specialists Network (EHS-Net), a collaborative project of CDC, the U.S. 
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture 
(USDA), and nine states (California, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, New 
York, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Tennessee). The network 
consists of environmental health specialists (EHSs), epidemiologists, 
and laboratorians. The EHS-Net has developed a standardized protocol 
for identifying, reporting, and analyzing data relevant to foodborne 
illness outbreak environmental assessments.
    While conducting environmental assessments during outbreak 
investigations is routine for food safety program officials, however, 
reporting information from the environmental assessments to CDC is not. 
State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial food safety program officials are 
the respondents for this data collection--one official from each 
participating program will report environmental assessment data on 
outbreaks. These programs are typically located in public health or 
agriculture agencies and there are approximately 3,000 such agencies in 
the United States. Thus, although it is not possible to determine how 
many programs will choose to participate, as NVEAIS is voluntary, the 
maximum potential number of program respondents is approximately 3,000.
    These programs will be reporting data on outbreaks, not their 
programs or personnel. It is not possible to determine exactly how many 
outbreaks will occur in the future, nor where they will occur. However, 
we can estimate, based on existing data that a maximum of 1,400 
foodborne illness outbreaks will occur annually. Only those programs in 
the jurisdictions in which these outbreaks occur would report to 
NVEAIS. Thus, not every program will respond every year. Consequently, 
the respondent burden estimate is based on the number of outbreaks 
likely to occur each year. Assuming each outbreak occurs in a different 
jurisdiction, there will be one respondent per outbreak.
    There are two activities associated with NVEAIS that require a 
burden estimate. The first is entering all requested environmental 
assessment data into NVEAIS. This will be done once for each outbreak 
and will take approximately 2 hours per outbreak.
    The second activity is the manager interview that will be conducted 
at each establishment associated with an outbreak. Most outbreaks are 
associated with only one establishment; however, some are associated 
with multiple establishments. We estimate that a maximum average of 4 
manager interviews will be conducted per outbreak. Each interview will 
take about 20 minutes.
    The total estimated annual burden is 4,667 hours. There is no cost 
to the respondents other than their time.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                      Average
                                                     Number of       Number of      burden per     Total burden
      Type of respondent            Form name       respondents    responses per   response  (in    (in hours)
                                                                    respondent        hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Food safety program personnel.  Reporting                  1,400               1               2           2,800
                                 environmental
                                 assessment data
                                 into electronic
                                 system.
Food safety program personnel.  Manager                    1,400               4           20/60           1,867
                                 interview.
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.....................  ................  ..............  ..............  ..............           4,667
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Daniel Holcomb,
Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2011-9670 Filed 4-20-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P