[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 65 (Thursday, April 6, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16839-16841]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-06867]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-17-17ZX; Docket No. CDC-2017-0032]


Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of 
Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION: Notice with comment period.

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SUMMARY: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 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 ``Childhood Blood 
Lead Surveillance (CBLS) and Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology and 
Surveillance (ABLES).'' The National Center for Environmental Health 
(NCEH) is leading a new three-year information collection request (ICR) 
that covers two CDC information collections, one for childhood blood 
lead surveillance by NCEH and another for adult blood lead surveillance 
by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). 
CDC requests an annual time burden of 1,120 burden hours for both 
collections.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before June 5, 2017.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2017-
0032 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.

Proposed Project

    Childhood Blood Lead Surveillance (CBLS) and Adult Blood Lead 
Epidemiology and Surveillance (ABLES)--New--National Center for 
Environmental Health (NCEH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
(CDC).

[[Page 16840]]

Background and Brief Description

    The National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) is leading a 
new three-year information collection request (ICR) that covers two 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information 
collections, one for childhood blood lead surveillance by NCEH and 
another for adult blood lead surveillance by the National Institute for 
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
    The goal of the NCEH Childhood Blood Lead Surveillance (CBLS) 
Program is to support blood lead screening and to promote primary 
prevention of exposure to lead. Also, the CBLS Program supports 
secondary prevention of adverse health effects when lead exposures 
occur in children through improved program management and oversight in 
respondent jurisdictions. The goal of the NIOSH Adult Blood Lead 
Epidemiology and Surveillance (ABLES) Program is to build state 
capacity for adult blood lead surveillance programs to measure trends 
in adult blood lead levels and to prevent lead over-exposures. Thus, 
blood lead surveillance over the human lifespan is covered under this 
single information collection request (ICR), specifically for children, 
less than 16 years, through CBLS at NCEH, and for adults, 16 years and 
older, through ABLES at NIOSH.
    NCEH is announcing a new three-year cooperative agreement, titled 
``Lead Poisoning Prevention--Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention--
financed partially by Prevention and Public Health Funds'' (Funding 
Opportunity Announcement [FOA] No. CDC-RFA-EH17-1701-PPHF17). The first 
year of this new program will run concurrently with the final and 
fourth budget year for ``PPHF 2014: Lead Poisoning Prevention--
Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention--financed solely by 2014 Prevention 
and Public Health Funds'' (FOA No. CDC-RFA-EH14-1408PPHF14). The four-
year FY14 cooperative agreement program has an existing Paperwork 
Reduction Act (PRA) clearance titled ``Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning 
Surveillance System (HHLPSS)'' (OMB Control No. 0920-0931; expiration 
date 05/31/2018), which will be extended through the end of the FY14 
program and then discontinued.
    In addition to the overlap in program periods, there are sufficient 
program differences to justify a new ICR for the FY17 NCEH cooperative 
agreement. For FY17, NCEH is requesting approval for the following: (1) 
Clarifying partners' procedures for data delivery into the Childhood 
Blood Lead Surveillance (CBLS) system; (2) revising the CBLS Variables 
form to remove healthy homes variables, which will not be collected, 
and adding three new CBLS indicator variables. Based on available FY17 
funds, NCEH is also requesting the following: (3) Increasing the number 
of potential NCEH respondents from 40 to 50; and (4) increasing the 
NCEH annual time burden from 640 to 800 hours.
    CDC is also taking this opportunity to provide the public with a 
detailed description of the NIOSH ABLES information collection. 
Previously, ABLES was mentioned but not described in the HHLPSS ICR 
(OMB Control No. 0920-0931; expiration date 05/31/2018). Thus, NIOSH is 
requesting approval for the following: (1) Providing a detailed 
description of the authority and scope of the ABLES information 
reporting procedures; (2) adding 40 NIOSH respondents to the burden 
table; and (3) adding 320 hours for the NIOSH annual time burden. Once 
approved in this new ICR, CDC will submit a change request to remove 
ABLES from the existing HHLPSS ICR to avoid duplication in PRA 
clearance.
    Over the past several decades there have been substantial efforts 
in environmental lead abatement, improved protection from occupational 
lead exposure, and a reduction in the prevalence of population BLLs 
over time. The U.S. population BLLs have substantially decreased over 
the last four decades. For example, the CDC has reported the 1976-1980 
U.S. BLL mean in children, 6 months to 5 years, as 16.0 micrograms per 
deciliter ([micro]g/dL); and among adults, 18 to 74 years, 14.1 
[micro]g/dL. More recently, the CDC reported the 2009-2010 U.S. BLL 
geometric means among children, 1 to 5 years, and among adults, 20 
years and older, as 1.2 [micro]g/dL for both age groups.
    In 2012, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) concluded that there 
is sufficient evidence that BLLs at less than 10 [micro]g/dL and at 
less than 5 [micro]g/dL are associated with adverse health effects in 
both children, less than 18 years, and in adults, 18 years and older. 
Despite the reduction in the overall population BLL over four decades, 
lead exposures continue to occur at unacceptable levels for individuals 
in communities and workplaces across the nation. Surveillance will 
continue through CBLS and ABLES to identify cases of elevated BLLs when 
primary prevention is not achieved. As of 2015, NCEH and NIOSH define 
elevated BLLs as greater than or equal to 5 [micro]g/dL for individuals 
of all ages.
    Respondents are defined as state, local, and territorial health 
departments with lead poisoning prevention programs. The estimated 
annual time burden for NCEH CBLS is 800 hours. The estimated annual 
time burden for NIOSH ABLES is 320 hours. In total, CDC is requesting 
approval for a total annual time burden of 1,120 hours.

                                        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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State, Local, and Territorial   Childhood Blood               50               4               4             800
 Health Departments.             Lead
                                 Surveillance
                                 (CBLS)
                                 Variables.
                                Adult Blood Lead              40               1               8             320
                                 Epidemiology
                                 and
                                 Surveillance
                                 (ABLES)
                                 Variables.
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.....................  ................  ..............  ..............  ..............           1,120
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[[Page 16841]]

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. 2017-06867 Filed 4-5-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4163-18-P