[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 195 (Tuesday, October 9, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61415-61416]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-24758]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[30-Day-13-12QI]


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 
(404) 639-7570 or send an email to [email protected]. Send written comments 
to CDC Desk Officer, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC or 
by fax to (202) 395-5806. Written comments should be received within 30 
days of this notice.

Proposed Project

    EHS-Net 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 a National Voluntary 
Environmental Assessment Information System 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.
    The information system was developed by the Environmental Health 
Specialists Network (EHS-Net), a collaborative project of federal and 
state public health agencies. The EHS-Net has developed a standardized 
instrument for reporting data relevant to foodborne illness outbreak 
environmental assessments.
    State, local, tribal, and territorial food safety programs are the 
respondents for this data collection. 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 programs in the 
jurisdictions in which these outbreaks occur would report to NVEAIS. 
Consequently, we have based our respondent burden estimate 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 three activities associated with NVEAIS that require a 
burden estimate. The first 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

[[Page 61416]]

establishments. We estimate that a maximum average of 4 manager 
interviews will be conducted per outbreak. Each interview will take 
about 20 minutes.
    The second activity 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.
    Additionally, all food safety program personnel participating in 
NVEAIS will also have to take training on how to conduct environmental 
assessments, how to enter data into NVEAIS, and how to conduct the 
manager interview. We estimate the burden of this training to be a 
maximum of 12 hours. Respondents will only have to take this training 
one time. Assuming a maximum number of outbreaks of 1,400, the 
estimated burden for this training is 16,800.
    The total estimated annual burden is 21,467 hours (see Table). 
There is no cost to the respondents other than their time.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                                                      Average
                                                                     Number of     Responses per    burden per
          Type of respondent                    Form name           respondents     respondent     response  (in
                                                                                                      hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Food safety program personnel.........  Manager interview.......           1,400               4           20/60
Food safety program personnel.........  NVEAIS Data Reporting              1,400               1               2
                                         Instrument.
Food safety program personnel (No form  Food safety program                1,400               1              12
 used).                                  personnel training.
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    Dated: October 2, 2012.
Ron A. Otten,
Director, Office of Scientific Integrity (OSI), Office of the Associate 
Director for Science (OADS), Office of the Director, Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2012-24758 Filed 10-5-12; 8:45 am]
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