[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 158 (Thursday, August 15, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49730-49735]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-19858]


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CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION

[Docket No. CPSC-2010-0041]


Collection of Information; Proposed Extension of Approval; 
Comment Request--Publicly Available Consumer Product Safety Information 
Database

AGENCY: Consumer Product Safety Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 
U.S.C. Chapter 35), the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC or 
Commission) requests comments on a proposed extension of approval of a 
collection of information for the Publicly Available Consumer Product 
Safety Information Database. The Commission will consider all comments 
received in response to this notice before requesting an extension of 
approval of this collection of information from the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB).

DATES: The Office of the Secretary must receive comments not later than 
October 15, 2013.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CPSC-2010-
0041, by any of the following methods:
    Electronic Submissions: Submit electronic comments to the Federal 
eRulemaking Portal at: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments. The Commission does not accept 
comments submitted by electronic mail (email), except through 
www.regulations.gov. The Commission encourages you to submit electronic 
comments by using the Federal eRulemaking Portal, as described above.

[[Page 49731]]

    Written Submissions: Submit written submissions in the following 
way: Mail/Hand delivery/Courier (for paper, disk, or CD-ROM 
submissions), preferably in five copies, to: Office of the Secretary, 
Consumer Product Safety Commission, Room 820, 4330 East-West Highway, 
Bethesda, MD 20814; telephone (301) 504-7923.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and docket number for this notice. All comments received may be posted 
without change, including any personal identifiers, contact 
information, or other personal information provided, to: http://www.regulations.gov. Do not submit confidential business information, 
trade secret information, or other sensitive or protected information 
that you do not want to be available to the public. If furnished at 
all, such information should be submitted in writing.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to: http://www.regulations.gov, and insert the 
docket number, CPSC-2010-0041, into the ``Search'' box, and follow the 
prompts.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information contact: 
Robert H. Squibb, Consumer Product Safety Commission, 4330 East-West 
Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814; (301) 504-7815, or by email to: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

A. Background

    Section 212 of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 
(CPSIA) added section 6A to the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA), 
which requires the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC or 
Commission) to establish and maintain a publicly available, searchable 
database on the safety of consumer products and other products or 
substances regulated by the Commission (Database). Among other things, 
section 6A of the CPSA requires the Commission to collect reports of 
harm from the public for potential publication in the publicly 
available Database and to collect and publish comments about reports of 
harm from manufacturers.
    On May 24, 2010, the Commission published a proposed rule on the 
Database and announced that a proposed collection of information in 
conjunction with the Database had been submitted to OMB for review and 
clearance under 44 U.S.C. 3501-3520.75 FR 29156. The Commission issued 
a final rule on the Database on December 9, 2010 (75 FR 76832). The 
final rule interprets various statutory requirements in section 6A of 
the CPSA pertaining to the information to be included in the Database 
and also establishes provisions regarding submitting reports of harm; 
providing notice of reports of harm to manufacturers; publishing 
reports of harm and manufacturer comments in the Database; and dealing 
with confidential and materially inaccurate information.
    OMB approved the collection of information for the Database under 
control number 3041-0146. OMB's approval will expire on January 31, 
2014. The Commission now proposes to request an extension of approval 
of this collection of information.

B. Information Collected Through the Database

    The primary purpose of this information collection is to populate 
the publicly searchable Database of consumer product safety information 
mandated by section 6A of the CPSA. There are four components to the 
information collection: Reports of harm, manufacturer comments, 
branding information, and the Small Batch Manufacturer Registry (SBMR).
    Reports of Harm: Reports of harm communicate information regarding 
an injury, illness, or death, or any risk (as determined by the 
Commission) of injury, illness, or death, relating to the use of a 
consumer product. Reports can be submitted to the CPSC by consumers; 
local, state, or federal government agencies; health care 
professionals; child service providers; public safety entities; and 
others. Reports may be submitted in one of three ways: Via the CPSC Web 
site (www.SaferProducts.gov), by telephone via a CPSC call center, or 
by email, fax, or mail, using the incident report form (available for 
download or printing via the CPSC Web site). Reports may also originate 
as a free-form letter or email. Submitters must consent to inclusion of 
their report of harm in the publicly searchable Database.
    Manufacturer Comments: A manufacturer or private labeler may submit 
a comment related to a report of harm if the report of harm identifies 
the manufacturer or private labeler and the CPSC transmits such report 
of harm to the manufacturer. Manufacturers' comments may be submitted 
through the business portal, by email, mail, or fax. The business 
portal is a feature of the Database that allows manufacturers who 
register on the business portal to receive reports of harm and comment 
on such reports through the business portal. Use of the business portal 
expedites the receipt of reports of harm and business response times.
    A manufacturer may request that the Commission designate 
information in a report of harm as confidential. Such a request may be 
made using the business portal, email, mail, or fax. Additionally, any 
person or entity reviewing a report of harm or a manufacturer's comment 
(either before or after publication in the Database) and who believes 
that the report contains materially inaccurate information, may request 
that the report or comment, or portions of the report or comment, be 
excluded from the Database. Such a request may be submitted by email, 
mail, or fax, and registered businesses also may utilize the business 
portal for such requests.
    Branding Information: Using the business portal, registered 
businesses may voluntarily submit branding information to assist CPSC 
in correctly and timely routing reports of harm. Brand names may be 
licensed to an entity other than the manufacturer. CPSC's accurate 
understanding of applicable licensing arrangements relating to consumer 
products increases the likelihood that the correct manufacturer is 
timely notified regarding a report of harm.
    Small Batch Manufacturers Registry: The business portal also 
contains the SBMR, which is the online mechanism by which small batch 
manufacturers (as defined in the CPSA) can identify themselves to 
obtain relief from certain third party testing requirements for 
children's products. To register as a small batch manufacturer and 
receive relief from third party testing, a business must attest that 
the company's total gross revenue and the number of units of the 
covered product manufactured both fall within the statutory limits.

C. Estimated Burden

1. Estimated Annual Burden for Respondents

    We estimate the burden of this collection of information as 
follows:

[[Page 49732]]



                         Table 1--Estimated Annual Reporting Burden for Reports of Harm
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                                     Number of       Response      Total annual     Minutes per    Total burden,
         Collection type            respondents    frequency \1\     responses       response      in hours \2\
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Reports of Harm--submitted                 8,030            1.02           8,207              12           1,641
 through Web site...............
Reports of Harm--submitted by              3,749            1.00           3,749              10             625
 phone..........................
Reports of Harm--submitted by                904            6.71           6,067              20           2,022
 mail, e-mail, fax..............
                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................          12,683  ..............          18,023  ..............           4,288
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     
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    \1\ Frequency of responses is calculated by dividing the number 
of responses by the number of respondents.
    \2\ Numbers have been rounded.

                     Table 2--Estimated Annual Reporting Burden for Manufacturer Submissions
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                                     Number of       Response      Total annual     Minutes per    Total burden,
         Collection type            respondents    frequency \1\     responses       response      in hours \2\
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Manufacturer Comments--submitted             624            8.20           5,117             116           9,893
 through Web site...............
Manufacturer Comments--submitted             132            1.25             165             146             402
 by mail, email, fax............
Requests to Treat Information as              11            1.27              14              15               4
 Confidential--submitted through
 Web site.......................
Requests to Treat Information as               0               0               0              45               0
 Confidential--submitted by
 mail, email, fax...............
Requests to Treat Information as             231            2.46             568             438           4,146
 Materially Inaccurate--
 submitted through Web site.....
Requests to Treat Information as              83            1.25             104             468             811
 Materially Inaccurate--
 submitted by mail, email, fax..
Voluntary Brand Identification..             545            2.25           1,227              10             205
Small Batch Manufacturer                     578               1             578              10              96
 Identification.................
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    Total.......................           2,204  ..............           7,773  ..............          15,557
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    Using the data in Tables 1 and 2 above, we estimate the annual 
reporting cost to be $1,086,332. This estimate is based on the sum of 
two estimated total figures for reports of harm and manufacturer 
submissions. The estimated number of respondents and responses are 
based on the actual responses received in FY 2012. We assume that the 
number of responses and respondents will be similar in future years.
    Reports of Harm: Table 1 sets forth the data used to estimate the 
burden associated with submitting reports of harm. We had previously 
estimated the time associated with the electronic and telephone 
submission of reports of harm at 12 and 10 minutes, respectively, and 
because we have had no indication that these estimates are not 
appropriate or accurate, we used those figures for present purposes as 
well. We estimate that the time associated with a paper or PDF form 
would be 20 minutes, on average.
    To estimate the costs for submitting reports of harm, we multiplied 
the estimated total burden hours associated with reports of harm (1,641 
hours + 625 hours + 2,022 hours = 4,288 hours) by an estimated total 
compensation for all workers in private industry of $29.13 per hour,\3\ 
which results in an estimated cost of $124,909 (4,288 hours x $29.13 
per hour = $124,909).
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    \3\ U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table 
9 of the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), Private 
Industry, goods-producing and service-providing industries, by 
occupational group, March 2013 (data extracted on 07/24/2013 from 
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.t09.htm.
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    Manufacturer Submissions: Table 2 sets forth the data used to 
estimate the burden associated with manufacturers' submissions to the 
Database. To gain information on how long it takes a manufacturer to 
submit a general comment or a claim that a report contains materially 
inaccurate information through the business portal, we contacted six 
businesses registered on the business portal. We asked each company how 
long it typically takes to research, compose, and enter a comment or a 
claim of materially inaccurate information. We had observed that a 
large percentage of the general comments come from a few businesses and 
assumed that the experience of a business that submits many comments 
each year would be different from one that submits only a few. 
Accordingly, we divided all responding businesses into three groups 
based on the number of general comments submitted in FY 2012, and then 
selected two businesses from each group to contact. The first group we 
contacted consisted of businesses that submitted 50 or more comments in 
FY 2012, accounting for 46 percent of all general comments received. 
The second group we contacted included businesses that submitted 6 to 
49 comments, accounting for 36 percent of all general comments 
received. The last group contacted included businesses that submitted 
no more than five comments, accounting for 18 percent of all general 
comments received.
    To estimate the burden associated with submitting a general comment 
regarding a report of harm through the business portal, we averaged the 
burden provided by each company within each group and then calculated a 
weighted average from the three groups, weighting each group by the 
proportion of comments received from that group. We found that the 
average time to submit a general comment regarding a report of harm is 
116 minutes based on the data in Table 3 (((10 minutes + 180 minutes)/2 
companies)*.46 + ((10 minutes + 30 minutes)/2 companies)*.36 + ((240 
minutes + 480 minutes)/2 companies)*.18 = 116 minutes).

[[Page 49733]]



  Table 3--Estimated Burden To Enter a General Comment in the Database
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                                                                General
                Group                         Company          comments
                                                               (minutes)
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Group 1.............................  Company A.............          10
(>= 50 comments)....................  Company B.............         180
Group 2.............................  Company A.............          10
(6-49 comments).....................  Company B.............          30
Group 3.............................  Company A.............         240
(<= 5 comments).....................  Company B.............         480
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    Registered businesses generally submit comments through our Web 
site. Unregistered businesses submit comments by mail, email, or fax. 
We estimate that submitting comments in this way takes a little longer 
because we often must ask the businesses to amend their submissions to 
include the required certifications. Thus, we estimated that, on 
average, comments submitted by mail, email, or fax take 30 minutes 
longer than those submitted through our Web site (116 minutes + 30 
minutes = 146 minutes).
    The submission of a claim of materially inaccurate information is a 
relatively rare event for all respondents, so we averaged all responses 
together. Four of the businesses contacted had submitted claims of 
materially inaccurate information during FY 2012. We found that the 
average time to submit a claim that a report of harm contains a 
material inaccuracy is 438 minutes ((10 minutes + 120 minutes + 180 
minutes + 1440 minutes)/4 companies = 438 minutes).
    Registered businesses generally submit claims through the business 
portal. Unregistered businesses submit claims by mail, email, or fax. 
We estimate that submitting claims in this way takes a little longer 
because we often must ask the businesses to amend their submissions to 
include the required certifications. Thus, we estimated that on 
average, claims submitted by mail, email, or fax take 30 minutes longer 
than those submitted through our Web site (438 minutes + 30 minutes = 
468 minutes).
    We previously had estimated that confidential information claims 
submitted through our Web site would take 15 minutes because the 
information to be entered would be readily accessible by the 
respondent. We have found that confidential information claims are very 
rare, and the few such claims that we have received have been submitted 
through our Web site. That limited experience did not suggest the need 
for any update of the estimate for Web site submission of confidential 
information claims. Although we have not received any confidential 
information claims by mail, email, or fax, based on our experience with 
comments and claims of materially inaccurate information, we estimate 
that a confidential information claim submitted by mail, email, or fax 
would take 30 minutes longer than those submitted through our Web site 
(15 minutes + 30 minutes = 45 minutes).
    For voluntary brand identification, we estimate that a response 
would take 10 minutes, on average. Most responses consist only of the 
brand name and a product description. In many cases a business will 
submit multiple entries in a brief period of time, and we can see from 
the date and time stamps on these records that an entry often takes 
less than two minutes. CPSC staff enters the same data in a similar 
form based on our own research, and that experience was also factored 
into our estimate.
    For small batch manufacturer identification, we estimate that a 
response would take 10 minutes, on average. The form consists of three 
check boxes, and the information should be readily accessible to the 
respondent.
    The responses summarized in Table 2 are generally submitted by 
manufacturers. To avoid underestimating the cost associated with the 
collection of this data, we assigned the higher hourly wage associated 
with a manager or professional in goods-producing industries to these 
tasks. To estimate the cost of manufacturer submissions, we multiplied 
the estimated total burden hours in Table 2 (15,557 hours) by an 
estimated total compensation for a manager or professional in goods-
producing industries of $61.80 per hour,\4\ which results in an 
estimated cost of $961,423 (15,557 hours x $61.80 per hour = $961,423).
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    \4\ U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table 
9 of the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), Private 
Industry, goods-producing and service-providing industries, by 
occupational group, March 2013 (data extracted on 07/24/2013 from 
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.t09.htm.
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    Therefore, the total estimated annual cost to respondents is 
$1,086,332 ($124,909 burden for reports of harm + $961,423 burden for 
manufacturer submissions = $1,086,332).

2. Estimated Annual Burden on Government

    We estimate the annualized cost to the CPSC to be $1,028,794. This 
figure is based on the costs for four categories of work for the 
Database: Reports of Harm, Materially Inaccurate Information Claims, 
Manufacturer Comments, and Small Batch Identification. Each category is 
described below. No government cost is associated with Voluntary Brand 
Identification because this information is entered directly into the 
Database by the manufacturer with no processing required by the 
government. The information assists the government in directing reports 
of harm to the correct manufacturer. We did not attempt to calculate 
separately the government cost for claims of confidential information 
because the number of claims is so small. The time to process these 
claims is included with claims of materially inaccurate information.
    Reports of Harm: The Reports of Harm category includes many 
different tasks. Some costs related to this category are from a data 
entry contract. Tasks related to this contract include clerical coding 
of the report, such as identifying the type of consumer product 
reported and the appropriate associated hazard, as well as performing 
quality control on the data in the report. The contractor spends an 
estimated 3,380 hours per year performing these tasks. With an hourly 
rate of $32.57 for contracter services, the annual cost to the 
government is $110,087.
    The Reports of Harm category also includes sending consent for 
reports when necessary, processing that consent when CPSC receives it, 
determining whether a product is out of CPSC's jurisdiction, and 
checking that pictures and attachments do not have any personally 
identifiable information. The Reports category also entails notifying 
manufacturers when one of their products is reported, completing a risk 
of harm determination form for every report eligible for publication, 
referring some reports to a Subject Matter Expert (SME) within the CPSC 
for a determination on whether the reports meet the requirement of 
having a risk of harm, and determining whether a report meets all the 
statutory and regulatory requirements for publication. Detailed costs 
are described in Table 4.

[[Page 49734]]



                                Table 4--Estimated Costs for Reports of Harm Task
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                                                                                       Total
                           Grade level                               Number of     compensation    Total annual
                                                                  hours (annual)     per  hour         cost
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Contract........................................................            3380          $32.57     $110,086.60
7...............................................................            1560           33.03       51,526.80
9...............................................................             832           40.53       33,720.96
12..............................................................            6396           58.78      375,956.88
13..............................................................             884           69.67       61,588.28
14..............................................................            2053           82.60      169,577.80
15..............................................................             421           96.84       40,769.64
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................................           12146  ..............      843,226.96
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    Materially Inaccurate Information (MII) Claims: The MII Claims 
category includes reviewing and responding to claims, participating in 
meetings where the claims are discussed, and completing a risk of harm 
determination on reports when a company alleges that a report does not 
describe a risk of harm. Detailed costs are described in Table 5.

                                  Table 5--Estimated Costs for MII Claims Task
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                                                                                       Total
                           Grade level                               Number of     compensation    Total annual
                                                                  hours (annual)     per  hour         cost
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12..............................................................             364          $58.78      $21,395.92
13..............................................................            1040           69.67       72,456.80
14..............................................................             378           82.60       31,222.80
15..............................................................             151           96.84       14,622.84
SES.............................................................             104          103.91       10,806.64
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................................            2037  ..............         150,505
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    Manufacturer Comments: The Comments category includes reviewing and 
accepting or rejecting comments. Detailed costs are described in Table 
6.

                             Table 6--Estimated Costs for Manufacturer Comments Task
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                                                                                       Total
                           Grade level                               Number of     compensation    Total annual
                                                                  hours (annual)     per  hour         cost
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12..............................................................             104          $58.78       $6,113.12
13..............................................................             182           69.67       12,679.94
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................................             286  ..............       18,793.06
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    Small Batch Manufacturer Identification: The Small Batch 
Manufacturer Identification category includes time spent posting the 
list of small batch registrations, as well as answering manufacturers' 
questions on registering as a Small Batch company and what the 
implications to that company of small batch registration. Detailed 
costs are described in Table 7.

                                  Table 7--Estimated Costs for Small Batch Task
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                                                                                       Total
                           Grade level                               Number of     compensation    Total annual
                                                                  hours (annual)     per  hour         cost
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15..............................................................             168          $96.84      $16,269.12
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................................             168  ..............       16,269.12
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[[Page 49735]]

We estimate the annualized cost to the CPSC of $1,028,794 by adding the 
four categories of work related to the Database summarized in Tables 4 
through 7 (Reports of Harm ($843,226.96) + MII Claims ($150,505.00) + 
Manufacturer Comments ($18,793.06) + Small Batch Identification 
($16,269.12) = $1,028,794.14).
    This information collection renewal request based on an estimated 
19,845 burden hours per year for the Database is a decrease of 17,284 
hours since this collection of information was last approved by OMB in 
2011. The decrease in burden is due primarily to the fact that the 
number of responses estimated in our original request overstated the 
number of actual responses submitted; we thus lowered the estimated 
number of responses based on actual experience since the original 
request.

D. Request for Comments

    The Commission solicits written comments from all interested 
persons about the proposed collection of information. The Commission 
specifically solicits information relevant to the following topics:
     Whether the collection of information described above is 
necessary for the proper performance of the Commission's functions, 
particularly with respect to the Database, including whether the 
information would have practical utility;
     Whether the estimated burden of the proposed collection of 
information is accurate;
     Whether the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected could be enhanced; and
     Whether the burden imposed by the collection of 
information could be minimized by use of automated, electronic, or 
other technological collection techniques, or other forms of 
information technology.

    Dated: August 12, 2013.
Todd A. Stevenson,
Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission.
[FR Doc. 2013-19858 Filed 8-14-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6355-01-P