[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 38 (Thursday, February 26, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10491-10492]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-03949]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[CDC-2015-0005, Docket Number NIOSH-281]


Future Directions for the Surveillance of Agricultural Injuries; 
Public Meeting; Request for Comments

AGENCY: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) 
of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of 
Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION: Notice of public meeting and request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of 
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announces a public 
meeting and an opportunity to comment on future directions for the 
surveillance of injuries within the agricultural production industry. 
To view the notice and related materials visit http://www.regulations.gov and enter CDC-2015-0005 in the search field and 
click ``Search.''
    Public comment period: Comments must be received May 27, 2015.

Table of Contents

 DATE
 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
 SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
    I. Background
    II. Public Meeting
    III. Written Comments


DATES: A public meeting will be held on March 30, 2015, 1:00 p.m.-5:00 
p.m. Eastern Time, or after the last public commenter has spoken, 
whichever occurs first. The public meeting will be held as a web-based 
conference only available by remote access.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kitty Hendricks, Division of Safety 
Research, 1095 Willowdale Road, MS 1808, Morgantown, West Virginia 
26505-2888, (304) 285-5916 (not a toll free number) or 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    I. Background: NIOSH began a coordinated program in 1990 to address 
safety and health issues for workers and families in the US 
agricultural production industry. In support of this program, NIOSH 
established an ongoing, national-level surveillance system to monitor 
injuries to hired farm workers, farmers, and farm family members. Data 
for the injury surveillance system are primarily collected through 
surveys funded by NIOSH and conducted by the US Department of 
Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA-NASS) and 
the US Department of Labor (DOL). These surveillance data are used by 
NIOSH and others to estimate injuries and injury rates and identify 
safety hazards that increase injury risk.
    Surveillance data have also been used to show that the US 
agricultural production industry has changed. Over the past quarter 
century, both the size of the workforce and the number of injuries have 
declined. To maintain statistically stable injury estimates with the 
current approach of national-level surveys, sample sizes would need to 
be increased. As a result, this approach has become more resource-
intensive and is no longer tenable for NIOSH.
    Beginning in 2015, NIOSH will not reestablish interagency 
agreements with USDA-NASS and DOL to collect survey data for the 
agricultural injury surveillance system. This change in surveillance 
approach presents an opportunity for NIOSH to receive stakeholder input 
and rigorously examine future options for agricultural injury 
surveillance.
    To identify and assess different options, NIOSH plans the following 
activities: Hold the public meeting announced in this notice to 
initiate a national conversation regarding future agricultural injury 
surveillance; seek additional public comments through this docket on 
the most urgent priorities for injury surveillance in production 
agriculture; examine what NIOSH and agricultural injury stakeholders 
can do to meet the overall need for agricultural injury surveillance; 
support a comprehensive, independent assessment of recommendations 
resulting from a 2007 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) review and a 
2012 follow-up independent panel review; continue to engage with 
interested parties as NIOSH plans its own future directions for 
agricultural injury surveillance; and seek input on the need for a 
follow-up public meeting in Fall 2015 to discuss NIOSH's future plans 
after having considered input received through the public meeting and 
public comment period.
    NIOSH is especially interested in comments related to finding new 
ways of doing surveillance using smarter, more cost-effective 
approaches; shifting surveillance from national to regional or local 
approaches, in recognition of the diversity of agricultural types in 
different parts of the country; and examining roles that partners can 
take to address the need for smarter agricultural injury surveillance.

[[Page 10492]]

    II. Public Meeting: NIOSH will hold a public meeting to allow for 
comments on future directions for surveillance of injuries within the 
agricultural production industry. The meeting is open to the public, 
limited only by the capacity of 100 connections to the Web based 
conference.
    Confirm your attendance to this meeting by sending an email to 
[email protected] by March 16, 2015. An email confirming registration 
will be sent from NIOSH and will include details needed to participate.
    Requests to make presentations at the public meeting should be 
emailed to [email protected] by March 16, 2015. All requests to present 
should contain the name, address, telephone number, and relevant 
business affiliations of the presenter. Presenters will be assigned a 
10-minute slot on the agenda. Presenters who wish to use slides must 
email an electronic file in Microsoft PowerPoint format to 
[email protected] by March 16, 2015. An email confirming the 
presentation request will be sent from NIOSH and will include details 
needed to present and an approximate start time for the presentation.
    If a presenter is not in attendance when his/her presentation is 
scheduled to begin, the remaining presenters will be heard in order. 
After the last scheduled presenter is heard, those who missed their 
opportunity may be allowed to present, limited by time available.
    Attendees who wish to speak, but did not submit a request for the 
opportunity to make a presentation, may be given this opportunity after 
the scheduled presenters are heard, at the discretion of the presiding 
officer and limited by time available.
    The public meeting, including all presentations and slides, will be 
recorded, transcribed, and posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided.
    III. Written Comments: You may submit comments, identified by CDC-
2015-0005 and Docket Number NIOSH-281, by either of the following 
methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: National Institute for Occupational Safety and 
Health, NIOSH Docket Office, 1090 Tusculum Avenue MS C-34, Cincinnati, 
Ohio 45226-1998.
    All information received in response to this notice must include 
the agency name and docket number [CDC-2015-0005; NIOSH-281]. All 
relevant comments received will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided. All 
electronic comments should be formatted as Microsoft Word. All 
information received in response to this notice will also be available 
for public examination and copying at the NIOSH Docket Office, 1150 
Tusculum Avenue, Room 155, Cincinnati, Ohio 45226-1998.

    Dated: February 18, 2015.
John Howard,
Director, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2015-03949 Filed 2-25-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-19-P