[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 186 (Monday, September 26, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66024-66026]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-23094]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

[60Day-16-16BEH; Docket No. ATSDR-2016-0006]


Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

AGENCY: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), 
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION: Notice with comment period.

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SUMMARY: The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), 
as part of its continuing efforts to reduce public burden and maximize 
the utility of government information, invites the general public and 
other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed 
and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on the ``ATSDR 
Communication Activities Survey (ACAS)'' which will be used to assess 
the effectiveness of ATSDR site team members as they engage and inform 
members of communities in providing effective, clear, and consistent 
communication and information about protecting communities from 
environmental hazards.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before November 25, 
2016.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. ATSDR-
2016-0006 by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Leroy A. Richardson, Information Collection Review 
Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road 
NE., MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and Docket Number. All relevant comments received will be posted 
without change to Regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided. For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to Regulations.gov.

    Please note:
     All public comment should be submitted through the Federal 
eRulemaking portal (Regulations.gov) or by U.S. mail to the address 
listed above.


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on the 
proposed project or to obtain a copy of the information collection plan 
and instruments, contact the Information Collection Review Office, 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE., MS-
D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329; phone: 404-639-7570; Email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of 
information they conduct or sponsor. In addition, the PRA also requires 
Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register 
concerning each proposed collection of information, including each new 
proposed collection, each proposed extension of existing collection of 
information, and each reinstatement of previously approved information 
collection before submitting the collection to OMB for approval. To 
comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a 
proposed data collection as described below.
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (d) ways to 
minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including through the use of automated collection techniques or other 
forms of information technology; and (e) estimates of capital or start-
up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and purchase of services 
to provide information. Burden means the total time, effort, or 
financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, 
disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This 
includes the time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, 
install and utilize technology and systems for the purpose of 
collecting, validating and verifying information, processing and 
maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; to 
train personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of 
information, to search data sources, to complete and review the 
collection of information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the 
information.

[[Page 66025]]

Proposed Project

    ATSDR Communication Activities Survey (ACAS)--NEW--Agency for Toxic 
Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).

Background and Brief Description

    The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) serves 
the public through responsive public health actions to promote healthy 
and safe environments and to prevent harmful exposures. The agency aims 
to work effectively with communities in proximity to hazardous waste 
sites by listening to and understanding their health concerns and 
seeking their guidance on where, when, and how to take public health 
actions.
    Community members are key participants in the agency's public 
health assessment process and should be actively involved in decisions 
that impact their community. Thus, agency's goals for this new 
information collection request (ICR) titled the ``ATSDR Communication 
Activities Survey (ACAS)'' are to ascertain the effectiveness of, and 
to assess the differences and the consistency of, the delivery of ATSDR 
activities and respondent perceptions across sites and over time. ATSDR 
will use the ACAS to: (1) Determine how effectively it's site teams 
engage community members; (2) discover how well ATSDR provides 
effective, clear, and consistent communication and information on how 
to promote healthy and safe environments; (3) understand whether the 
agency's activities are helping the communities address environmental 
issues; and (4) improve ATSDR's activities to make a greater impact 
within the communities served.
    Recruitment will occur at communities where ATSDR and state or 
local agencies have implemented site activities to address 
environmental issues. For each engaged community, the ACAS will be used 
to assess a set of effectiveness indicators for ATSDR site-specific 
activities about the respondents' involvement, knowledge, satisfaction, 
observations, and opinions about ATSDR's community engagement and 
educational outreach efforts to inform communities. The indicators will 
measure ATSDR effectiveness in the following respondent areas: (1) 
Their involvement with the site activities; (2) how they received, and 
prefer to receive, ATSDR information; (3) their knowledge and 
understanding of ATSDR site activities and how to reduce hazardous 
exposures; (4) their observations and opinions of ATSDR's role in 
community preparedness; (5) their self-evaluation on their risk of 
exposure to possible environmental hazards; (6) their demographic 
profile; (7) their environmental concerns; and (8) any additional 
feedback.
    ATSDR is seeking a three-year clearance for this new ICR. ATSDR 
anticipates that approximately six to seven sites will be engaged for 
feedback per year (or about 20 sites over the next three years). Each 
year, ATSDR will recruit approximately 167 individuals per year, aged 
18 and older, to participate in the ACAS where ATSDR is holding public 
community meetings. Therefore, respondents will include approximately 
24 to 28 community members and agency stakeholders per meeting (6 to 7 
meetings per year). The community members may include, but are not 
limited to, the general public, community leaders, faith-based leaders, 
and business leaders. The agency stakeholders may include, but are not 
limited to, state and local environmental health department employees, 
such as environmental health assessors, toxicologists, and departmental 
officials. The mix of respondents will be approximately 75 percent 
community members (n = 125 per year) and 25 percent agency stakeholders 
(n = 42 per year).
    Trained ATSDR contractors will have a table set up at the entrance 
of the community meeting where community meeting attendees will pick up 
a fact sheet which explains what ATSDR does, and the purpose of ATSDR's 
site activities and the survey.
    At the end of ATSDR public community meetings, there will be an 
announcement to ask interested attendees to take the survey. All 
interested attendees will sign in and provide their contact 
information, their preferred mode for taking the survey (in-person, 
online or over the phone), and whether they are a community member or 
an agency stakeholder.
    The ACAS will preferably be self-administered right after the 
public community meetings. If this is not a convenient time for the 
respondent, the ACAS may be completed online or by phone. We estimate 
that approximately 80 percent of respondents will choose the self-
administered ACAS, 15 percent will choose the online ACAS, and 5 
percent will choose the telephone ACAS.
    There are no costs to the respondents other than their time. The 
total annual time burden requested is 96 hours per year.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                     Number of    Average burden
      Type of respondents           Form name        Number of     responses per   per response    Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent       (in hrs.)       (in hrs.)
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Community Members.............  Sign In Sheet...             125               1            3/60               7
                                Hardcopy ACAS...             100               1           30/60              50
                                Online ACAS.....              19               1           30/60              10
                                Telephone ACAS..               7               1           30/60               4
Agency Stakeholders...........  Sign In Sheet...              42               1            3/60               3
                                Hardcopy ACAS...              34               1           30/60              17
                                Online ACAS.....               7               1           30/60               4
                                Telephone ACAS..               2               1           30/60               1
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.....................  ................             167  ..............  ..............              96
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[[Page 66026]]

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. 2016-23094 Filed 9-23-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4163-70-P