[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 160 (Monday, August 19, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42920-42921]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-17782]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[Docket No. CDC-2019-0068; NIOSH-324]


State-Based Occupational Health Surveillance; Request for 
Information and Meeting Notice

AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HHS.

ACTION: Notice of public teleconference meeting and request for 
information.

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SUMMARY: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 
(NIOSH), within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 
announces a public teleconference meeting and an opportunity to comment 
on funding mechanisms and other considerations for state-based 
occupational health surveillance.

DATES: Comments must be received October 18, 2019. The public 
teleconference meeting will be held on Monday, September 16, 2019, 2 
p.m. to 4 p.m. EST, or after the last public commenter in attendance 
has spoken, whichever occurs first. The public meeting will be held as 
a web-based teleconference available by remote access.

ADDRESSES: You may submit written comments, identified by docket 
numbers CDC-2019-0068 and NIOSH-324, by either of the following two 
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.
    Instructions: All information received in response to this notice 
must include the agency name and docket number [CDC-2019-0068; NIOSH-
324]. All relevant comments received will be posted without change to 
http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kerry Souza, 395 E St SW, Washington, 
DC 20004; phone: 202-245-0639 (not a toll free number); email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Request for Information

    State health agencies have a critical role in the identification 
and prevention of occupational illnesses and injuries. NIOSH has 
supported state agencies (primarily departments of public health and, 
in some cases, departments of labor) since the 1970s, through a 
combination of funding and technical assistance.\1\ Since that time, 
NIOSH has supported states to build capacity in occupational safety and 
health, ranging from the development of case-based surveillance to 
creating focused public health interventions addressing the 
occupational health needs of higher risk populations. The work of these 
state programs exemplifies the concept of ``information for action'' by 
ensuring that collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination 
of occupational health data are linked to prevention and control 
activities. Numerous examples of these successes can be found in the 
published literature, in state reports and on state websites, and NIOSH 
website topic pages.
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    \1\ Eligible applicants include state and other government 
entities such as local, county, or tribal health departments, 
henceforth referred to as `states.'
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    In 2019, NIOSH funded 26 state occupational health surveillance 
programs of varying sizes and capacities. The portfolio of state based 
activities includes 49 projects addressing work related morbidity and 
mortality, exposure reduction, or special populations of interest.\2\ 
These states are funded through a research cooperative agreement 
mechanism. The most recent (2014) announcement can be found at the 
following web address: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-14-275.html.
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    \2\ See https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/oep/statesurv.html.
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    For its state-based surveillance and intervention cooperative 
agreements, NIOSH is considering switching from a research cooperative 
agreement approach to a non-research cooperative agreement approach. 
CDC generally defines public health research as an activity that 
develops or contributes to generalizable knowledge to improve public 
health practice; a non-research activity is one that is designed to 
identify and control a health problem or improve a public health 
program or service.\3\ A non-research mechanism could be a public 
health practice cooperative agreement or another cooperative agreement 
type, and may or may not be a better fit for the scope of activities 
ordinarily conducted by occupational health programs in a public health 
context.
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    \3\ CDC [2010], Distinguishing Public Health Research and Public 
Health Nonresearch Policy, https://www.cdc.gov/od/science/integrity/docs/cdc-policy-distinguishing-public-health-research-nonresearch.pdf.
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    Under the research mechanism currently used, submissions for 
funding are evaluated on the following criteria: Significance, 
investigators, innovation, approach, and environment. Under a non-
research approach, proposals would likely be evaluated based upon how 
well the proposal identifies important occupational health burdens in 
the state; approach for tracking these concerns; relevance and 
potential impact of the public health actions proposed; and 
organizational capacity of the applicant to achieve the proposal.
    This exploration of funding mechanism type presents an opportunity 
for NIOSH to receive stakeholder input and identify the best type from 
a programmatic, logistic, and administrative point of view. Exploring 
this and other approaches is recommended by the National Academies of 
Science, Engineering and Medicine in its report ``A Smarter National 
Surveillance System for

[[Page 42921]]

Occupational Safety and Health in the 21st Century.'' \4\
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    \4\ See https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24835/a-smarter-national-surveillance-system-for-occupational-safety-and-health-in-the-21st-century.
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    To identify and assess different options, NIOSH plans to conduct 
the following activities: (1) Hold the public teleconference announced 
in this notice to receive comments regarding funding approaches for its 
state based occupational health surveillance programs and (2) seek 
additional public comments through this docket.
    NIOSH is interested in comments related to the funding mechanism as 
it relates to impact on the conduct of state agency activities, 
including comments on the following questions:
    1. What are the advantages and disadvantages to the states if NIOSH 
continues using research cooperative agreements for funding of state 
occupational health surveillance programs?
    2. What are the advantages and disadvantages to the states if NIOSH 
changed to using a non-research mechanism for funding state 
occupational health surveillance programs?
    3. If the non-research mechanism would specifically prohibit the 
use of any funds for research, would this have a negative effects on 
state occupational health surveillance program development or 
direction? If so, please describe.
    4. Only research cooperative agreements are covered by Certificates 
of Confidentiality that protect the confidentiality of sensitive 
information collected from research subjects by our grantees. Do states 
need or use these certificates?
    5. Would a non-research cooperative agreement mechanism impact the 
ability of universities acting as bonafide agents of the states to 
apply and receive funding under this mechanism? If so, how?
    6. Non-research proposals undergo ``objective review,'' which 
employs CDC reviewers in place of external peer reviewers. Scoring of 
applications would likely use the criteria described above 
(occupational health burdens in the state; approach for tracking these 
concerns; relevance and potential impact of the public health actions 
proposed; and organizational capacity of the state). Are there concerns 
related to these criteria or the use of objective review?
    7. It is possible that NIOSH will continue to employ an external 
peer review process for scoring of applications. Are there concerns 
related to the use of external peer review?
    8. Using the principles of Burden, Need and Impact,\5\ the new 
Notice of Funding Opportunity will focus on surveillance activities 
that address the occupational safety and health burden of the applicant 
state. How will this directive impact the applying states?
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    \5\ See https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/programs/pps/bni.html for more 
information about Burden, Need and Impact.
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    9. The 2014 cooperative agreement (PAR-14-275) funded three 
programmatic levels (fundamental, fundamental plus, and expanded 
programs) to address the varying levels of surveillance capacity of 
applicant states. Should this 3-tier funding strategy be continued? If 
not, what other strategy might be considered?
    10. How does the 3-tier funding strategy affect states' ability to 
explore emerging occupational safety and health issues?
    11. Occupational Health Indicators \6\ have been a central 
component of the NIOSH state based surveillance program. What are the 
advantages and disadvantages to your state program of continuing to 
calculate and use the Occupational Health Indicators?
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    \6\ See https://www.cste.org/page/OHIndicators for more 
information about Occupational Health Indicators.
_____________________________________-

Public Meeting

    NIOSH will hold a public teleconference meeting to solicit comments 
on the future funding mechanism of its state-based occupational health 
surveillance program. The meeting is open to the public, limited only 
by the capacity of 250 connections to the web-based conference.
    Confirm your attendance to this meeting by sending an email to 
[email protected] by September 9, 2019. An email confirming registration 
will be sent from NIOSH and will include details needed to participate.
    Requests to make a statement at the public meeting should be 
emailed to [email protected] by September 2, 2019. All requests to make 
statements should contain the name, address, telephone number, and 
relevant business affiliations of the presenter. Presenters will be 
assigned a 5-minute slot on the agenda. Oral statements only will be 
permitted--presentations of slides will not be permitted. NIOSH will 
confirm presentation requests by email, and will provide additional 
instructions regarding the presentation, including the 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 
official and limited by time available. Those who do not have an 
opportunity to comment during the teleconference are encouraged to 
submit written comments to the NIOSH docket.
    The public meeting will be recorded, transcribed, and posted 
without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal 
information provided.

Frank J. Hearl,
Chief of Staff, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and 
Human Services.
[FR Doc. 2019-17782 Filed 8-16-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P