[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 211 (Thursday, October 31, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65293-65297]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-25893]



[[Page 65293]]

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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 
December 2, 2013.

ADDRESSES: OMB recommends that written comments be faxed to the Office 
of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Attn: CPSC Desk Officer, 
FAX: 202-395-6974, or emailed to [email protected]. All 
comments should be identified by Docket No. CPSC-2010-0041. In 
addition, written comments also should be submitted at http://www.regulations.gov, under Docket No. CPSC-2010-0041, or by mail/hand 
delivery/courier (for paper, disk, or CD-ROM submissions), preferably 
in five copies, to: Office of the Secretary, U.S. Consumer Product 
Safety Commission, Room 820, 4330 East West Highway, Bethesda, MD 
20814; telephone (301) 504-7923. For access to the docket to read 
background documents or comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov.

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: In the Federal Register of August 15, 2013 
(78 FR 49730), the CPSC published a notice in accordance with 
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 
35). This notice announced CPSC's intention to seek extension of 
approval of a collection of information for a database on the safety of 
consumer products and other products and substances regulated by the 
Commission (Database), as required by section 212 of the Consumer 
Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA).
    Two comments were received in response to the August 15th notice. 
One commenter stated support for extension of the approval of the 
collection of information for the Database, citing the usefulness of 
the data collected to both the CPSC and to consumers. This commenter 
also suggested that the Database could be even more useful if CPSC 
would provide a link to any corrective action, fine, recall or safety 
alert involving a reported product. CPSC agrees that the links 
suggested by the commenter would add value to the Database. However, 
incorporating new features would require resources that are not 
currently available. CPSC will take the suggestion under advisement and 
consider such modifications if and when resources for modifications are 
available. Another commenter stated that CPSC does not help consumers. 
CPSC has no response to this comment because the comment is outside the 
scope of the inquiry regarding paperwork burdens associated with the 
requested collection of information.
    By publication of this notice, the Commission announces that it has 
submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request for 
extension of approval of the collection of information for the Database 
without change.

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.
    The Commission announced that a proposed collection of information 
in conjunction with the Database, called the Publicly Available 
Consumer Product Safety Information Database, had been submitted to OMB 
for review and clearance under 44 U.S.C. 3501-3520 in a proposed rule 
published on May 24, 2010 (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 most recent extension of 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. Manufacturer 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

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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, by email, by mail, or by fax. Also, any 
person or entity reviewing a report of harm or manufacturer comment, 
either before or after publication in the Database, may request that 
the report or comment, or portions of the report or comment, be 
excluded from the Database because the report or comment contains 
materially inaccurate information. Such a request may be made by 
manufacturers using the business portal, by email, mail or fax, and may 
be submitted by anyone else by email, mail, or fax.
    Branding Information: Using the business portal, registered 
businesses may voluntarily submit branding information to assist CPSC 
in correctly and timely routing reports of harm involving their 
products to them. Brand names may be licensed to another entity for use 
in labeling consumer products manufactured by that entity. CPSC's 
understanding of licensing arrangements for consumer products can help 
to give the correct manufacturer timely notification of 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 a 
business must attest that the company's income level and the number of 
units of the covered product manufactured for which relief is sought 
both fall within the statutory limits to receive relief from third 
party testing.

C. Estimated Burden

1. Estimated Annual Burden for Respondents

    We estimate the burden of this collection of information as 
follows:
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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 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, email, fax...............
                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................          12,683  ..............          18,023  ..............           4,288
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                     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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    Based on the data set forth in tables 1 and 2 above, the annual 
reporting cost is estimated to be $1,086,332. This estimate is based on 
the sum of two estimated 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 so 
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 manufacturer submissions to the 
Database. To gain information on how long it takes a

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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 was made of up of businesses that 
submitted 50 or more comments in FY 2012, accounting for 46% of all 
general comments received. The second group we contacted included 
businesses that submitted 6 to 49 comments, accounting for 36% of all 
general comments received. The last group contacted included businesses 
that submitted no more than five comments, accounting for 18% 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).

  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 (>=50 comments)...........  Company A...........             10.
                                    Company B...........            180.
Group 2 (6-49 comments)...........  Company A...........             10.
                                    Company B...........             30.
Group 3 (<=5 comments)............  Company A...........            240.
                                    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 business to amend their submission 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 + 1,440 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 business to amend their submission 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 had previously 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 do not have enough information to update this estimate. 
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).

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2. Estimated Annual Burden on Government

    The annualized cost to the CPSC is estimated 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 separately 
calculate 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, the annual cost to the government is $110,087.
    The Reports of Harm category also includes sending consent requests 
for reports when necessary, processing that consent when received, 
determining whether a product is out of CPSC's jurisdiction, and 
confirming 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.

                                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........................................................           3,380          $32.57     $110,086.60
7...............................................................           1,560           33.03       51,526.80
9...............................................................             832           40.53       33,720.96
12..............................................................           6,396           58.78      375,956.88
13..............................................................             884           69.67       61,588.28
14..............................................................           2,053           82.60      169,577.80
15..............................................................             421           96.84       40,769.64
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................................          12,146  ..............      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..............................................................           1,040           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.......................................................           2,037  ..............      150,505.00
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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 manufacturer's 
questions on how to register as a Small Batch company and what it means 
to that company. 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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    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).
    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 was overestimated in our original request.

    Dated: October 28, 2013.
Todd A. Stevenson,
Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission.
[FR Doc. 2013-25893 Filed 10-30-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6355-01-P