[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 148 (Wednesday, August 1, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45615-45616]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-18744]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-12-12QI]


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 404-639-7570 
and send comments to Kimberly Lane, at 1600 Clifton Road, MS-D74, 
Atlanta, GA 30333 or send an email 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

    The National Voluntary Environmental Assessment Information System 
(NVEAIS)--New--National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    The CDC is requesting OMB approval for the 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, reporting 
information from the environmental assessments to CDC is not routine. 
Thus, 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. 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 that, based on existing data, a maximum of 1,400 
foodborne illness outbreaks will occur annually. Only 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. 
This 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

[[Page 45616]]

with only one establishment; however, some are associated with multiple 
establishments. We estimate that a maximum average of four 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
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                                                                                      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 NVEAIS.
Retail food personnel.........  Manager                    1,400               4           20/60           1,867
                                 interview.
                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.....................  ................  ..............  ..............  ..............           4,667
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Kimberly S. Lane,
Deputy Director, Office of Scientific Integrity, Office of the 
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2012-18744 Filed 7-31-12; 8:45 am]
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