[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 110 (Wednesday, June 8, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36922-36923]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-13571]



[[Page 36922]]

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[30Day-16-16KB]


Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has submitted 
the following information collection request to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval in accordance with 
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The notice for the proposed 
information collection is published to obtain comments from the public 
and affected agencies.
    Written comments and suggestions from the public and affected 
agencies concerning the proposed collection of information are 
encouraged. Your comments should address any of the following: (a) 
Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is necessary 
for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including 
whether the information will have practical utility; (b) Evaluate the 
accuracy of the agencies estimate of the burden of the proposed 
collection of information, including the validity of the methodology 
and assumptions used; (c) Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of 
the information to be collected; (d) Minimize the burden of the 
collection of information on those who are to respond, including 
through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or 
other technological collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission of responses; and 
(e) Assess information collection costs.
    To request additional information on the proposed project or to 
obtain a copy of the information collection plan and instruments, call 
(404) 639-7570 or send an email to [email protected]. Written comments and/or 
suggestions regarding the items contained in this notice should be 
directed to the Attention: CDC Desk Officer, Office of Management and 
Budget, Washington, DC 20503 or by fax to (202) 395-5806. Written 
comments should be received within 30 days of this notice.

Proposed Project

    Measuring Perceived Self-Escape Competencies among Underground 
Mineworkers--New--National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 
(NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    After a thorough review of United States' underground coal mine 
emergency escape preparedness and response, the National Academy of 
Sciences (NRC, 2013) has emphasized the need to improve underground 
mineworkers' ability to successfully escape a mine emergency. 
Specifically, several mine disasters of 2006 raised a number of issues 
about mine emergency preparedness and response particularly as they 
relate to self-escape competencies. The resulting federal regulations 
under the MINER Act of 2006, now require all underground coal miners 
receive SCSR and escapeway training quarterly throughout the year and 
new emergency communications and tracking systems have been mandated 
and installed in underground coal mines.
    While such improvements may have better prepared underground miners 
to self-escape, it has become increasingly apparent that further 
research and development of new strategies is needed to enhance miner 
emergency preparedness, particularly as it relates to competency 
training and assessment. A review of various reports on coal mine 
emergency response [MSTTC 2006, U.S. GAO 2007, West Virginia Mine 
Safety Technology Task Force 2006, McAteer 2006a, McAteer 2006b] 
offered a number of recommendations for improving training that 
resulted in the identification of three areas of critical importance: 
(1) Evaluation of competencies; (2) improved training methods; and (3) 
new training content.
    The NAS report echoed these findings and offered more specific 
recommendations for future training research and development. 
Specifically related to this information collection project, the NAS 
recommends that NIOSH identify critical self-escape competencies as 
well as any existing gaps in miners' knowledge, skills, abilities and 
other attributes (KSAOs) to be addressed through future training 
research and development. The specific aim of the work proposed is 
designed, in part, to respond to the recommendations set forth by the 
authors of the NAS report.
    The information collected will have practical utility in efforts to 
enhance the ability of miners to successfully escape from underground 
coal mines in the event of an emergency by identifying gaps in 
perceived competence in specific knowledge and skills in moving through 
the mine, avoiding dangers, and using protective equipment. This 
information collection will contribute to our understanding of actual 
miner capabilities from the perspective of the mineworkers themselves.
    NIOSH researchers will visit up to 20 mine sites to obtain informed 
consent from volunteer participants and administer a short paper and 
pencil survey. The survey will include demographic questions and 27 
questions related to participants' perceived confidence in their own 
ability to escape their mine in the event of an emergency. Data 
collection will occur above ground at a variety of coal mines (and 
other above ground facilities) to gather information from a diverse 
sample of mines to better reflect the variability (e.g., size, mining 
method, geographic location) that exists among mines and could impact 
self-escape procedures and resource availability. Variability in 
mineworker and mining site characteristics is key to generating a 
cross-sectional snapshot of current mineworkers' perceived self-escape 
competence and may reveal any potential relationships among these 
characteristics and perceived competence in a variety of self-escape 
KSAOs.
    This data collection will occur once for each mine site over the 
next two years (after OMB approval) and is designed to gather 
information not previously available. This data collection instrument 
is not being used in any other research. The results produced are 
expected to lead to recommendations for emphasis in new and/or existing 
KSAO training and preparation as well as to inform future self-escape 
training and research development.
    This data will be used by NIOSH's Office of Mining Safety and 
Health Research to improve underground coal miners' self-escape 
competence.
    NIOSH proposes this exploratory two-year study to better 
characterize the current state of miner self-escape competence and to 
answer the following questions:
     What gaps exist between what miners are required to do for 
self-escape and their perceptions of their actual capabilities?
     How might miner demographics and mine-specific 
characteristics (e.g., size, mining method, and geographic location) 
relate to perceived competence in self-escape KSAOs?
    Based on the results of this and other concurrent exploratory work, 
interventions to increase mine escape competencies will be improved 
and/or developed and assessed which could lead to more standardized 
self-escape training and assessment throughout the industry.

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    Participants will be underground mining personnel drawn from a 
variety of operating underground coal mines. Descriptive and 
inferential statistics on data obtained from the survey will be used 
quantify miner self-escape competence and to identify any statistically 
significant relationships among aggregated miner characteristics and 
perceived competence.
    Finally, the data will serve as a gross baseline measure of miner 
self-escape competence to be directly compared to future data 
collection utilizing the identical data collection instrument. The 
total estimated annualized burden hours are 67.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                                   Number of      Average burden
         Type of respondent                  Form name            Number of      responses per     per response
                                                                 respondents       respondent       (in hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mine Worker.........................  Survey.................             400                1            10/60
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Leroy A. Richardson,
Chief, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 
Integrity, Office of the Associate Director for Science, Office of the 
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2016-13571 Filed 6-7-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P