[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 195 (Tuesday, October 8, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53707-53709]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-21875]


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CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION

[Docket No. CPSC-2009-0102]


Collection of Information; Proposed Extension of Approval; 
Comment Request--Follow-Up Activities for Product-Related Injuries 
Including NEISS

AGENCY: Consumer Product Safety Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) requests comments on a 
proposed extension of approval for an information collection to obtain 
data on consumer product-related injuries, and follow-up activities for 
product-related injuries. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
previously approved the collection of information under OMB Control No. 
3041-0029. CPSC will consider all comments received in response to this 
notice before requesting an extension of approval of this collection of 
information from OMB.

DATES: Submit written or electronic comments on the collection of 
information by December 9, 2019.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CPSC-2009-
0102, by any of the following methods:
    Electronic Submissions: Submit electronic comments to the Federal 
eRulemaking Portal at: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments. The CPSC does not accept comments 
submitted by electronic mail (email), except through 
www.regulations.gov. The CPSC encourages you to submit electronic 
comments by using the Federal eRulemaking Portal, as described above.
    Written Submissions: Submit written submissions in the following 
way: mail/hand delivery/courier to: Division of the Secretariat, 
Consumer Product Safety Commission, Room 820, 4330 East West Highway, 
Bethesda, MD 20814; telephone (301) 504-7923.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and docket number for this notice. All comments received may be posted 
without change, including any personal identifiers, contact 
information, or other personal information provided, to: http://www.regulations.gov. Do not submit confidential business information, 
trade secret information, or other sensitive or protected information 
that you do not want to be available to the public. If furnished at 
all, such information should be submitted in writing.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to: http://www.regulations.gov, and insert the 
docket number, CPSC-2009-0102, into the ``Search'' box, and follow the 
prompts. A copy of the supporting statement, ``PRI ICR 2019 60-day'' 
will be made available under Supporting and Related Materials.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information or a copy of 
the supporting statement contact: Bretford Griffin, Consumer Product 
Safety Commission, 4330 East West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814; (301) 
504-7037, or by email to: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

A. Background

    Section 5(a) of the Consumer Product Safety Act, 15 U.S.C. 2054(a), 
requires the CPSC to collect information related to the causes and 
prevention of death, injury, and illness associated with consumer 
products. That section also requires the CPSC to conduct continuing 
studies and investigations of deaths, injuries, diseases, other health 
impairments, and economic losses resulting from accidents involving 
consumer products.
    The CPSC obtains information about product-related deaths, 
injuries, and illnesses from a variety of sources, including 
newspapers, death certificates, consumer complaints, and medical 
facilities. In addition, the CPSC receives information through its 
internet website through forms reporting on product-related injuries or 
incidents. The CPSC also operates the National Electronic Injury 
Surveillance System (NEISS), which provides timely data on consumer 
product-related injuries treated in hospital emergency departments in 
the United States. The CPSC also uses the NEISS system to collect 
information on childhood poisonings, in accordance with the

[[Page 53708]]

Poison Prevention Packaging Act of 1970.
    From these sources, CPSC staff selects cases of interest for 
further investigation, by contacting persons who witnessed or were 
injured in incidents involving consumer products. These investigations 
are conducted on-site (face-to-face), by telephone, or by the internet. 
On-site investigations are usually made in cases where CPSC staff needs 
photographs of the incident site, the product involved, or detailed 
information about the incident. This information can come from face-to-
face interviews with persons who were injured or who witnessed the 
incident, as well as via contact with state and local officials, 
including police, coroners, and fire investigators, and others with 
knowledge of the incident.
    Through interagency agreements, the CPSC also uses the NEISS system 
to collect information on injuries for the Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention (CDC) under the NEISS All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP). 
The NEISS-AIP is a sub-sample of approximately two-thirds of the full 
NEISS sample. In addition to the standard data variables collected on 
all NEISS injuries, the NEISS-AIP collects additional variables on 
several studies for CDC (Adverse Drug Events, Assaults, Self-Inflicted 
Violence, and Work-Related Injuries) and one study on non-crash motor 
vehicle-related injuries for the National Highway and Transportation 
Safety Administration (NHTSA). Additional special study variables are 
collected for CDC in the full NEISS sample for firearm-related 
injuries.
    The current NEISS probability sample was drawn and recruited in 
1995-1996 and implemented in 1997. Since then, several of the selected 
hospitals have stopped participating for reasons such as closures and 
mergers with other hospitals, and were replaced with other purposively-
selected hospitals. While hospital weights are adjusted to account for 
changes in the population of hospitals over time, the current sample of 
hospitals participating in NEISS is being reviewed to assess their 
representativeness. The selection process may be revised in future 
years in order to strengthen the quality and representativeness of the 
estimates generated by the NEISS-AIP. CPSC has entered into a contract 
with Westat to perform an independent statistical assessment of the 
NEISS and NEISS-AIP samples under CPSC contract 61320619F0134 with a 
period of performance of September 27, 2019 through September 26, 2020.
    OMB previously approved the collection of information concerning 
product-related injuries under control number 3041-0029. OMB's most 
recent extension of approval will expire on January 31, 2020. The CPSC 
now proposes to request an extension of approval of this collection of 
information.

B. NEISS Estimated Burden

    The NEISS system collects information on consumer product-related 
incidents and other injuries from a statistical sample of 96 hospitals 
in the United States. Respondents to NEISS include hospitals that 
directly report information to NEISS, and hospitals that allow access 
to a CPSC contractor, who collects the data. Collecting emergency 
department records for review, correcting error messages, among other 
tasks, takes about 36 minutes per day. Each record takes about 30 
seconds to review. Coding and reporting records that involve consumer 
products or other injuries takes about 2 minutes per record. Coding and 
reporting additional special study information (Adverse Drug Effects) 
takes about 2 minutes and 90 seconds per record for other special 
studies. Respondents also spend about 36 hours per year in related 
activities (training, evaluations, and communicating with other 
hospital staff).
    In 2018, there were 130 NEISS respondents (total hospitals and CPSC 
contractors). These NEISS respondents reviewed an estimated 5.53 
million emergency department records and reported 727,544 total cases 
(363,221 consumer product-related injuries for CPSC, and 364,323 other 
injuries for the NEISS-AIP). The table below lists the number of 
reported cases, and the number of reported cases with additional 
special study information.

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Total NEISS Cases Reported..............................         727,544
Consumer Product-Related Injuries.......................         363,221
CDC NEISS-AIP...........................................         364,323
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               Special Studies Reported (subset of above)
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Child Poisoning (CPSC)..................................           4,734
Adverse Drug Events (CDC)...............................          36,858
Assaults (CDC)..........................................          32,990
Firearm-Related Injuries (CDC)..........................           6,159
Self-Inflicted Violence (CDC)...........................           9,106
Work-Related Injuries (CDC).............................          38,132
Motor Vehicle Non-Crash Injuries (NHTSA)................          12,813
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    The total burden hours for all NEISS respondents are estimated to 
be 100,781 for 2018. The average burden hour per respondent is 775 
hours. However, the total burden hour on each respondent varies due to 
differences in size of the hospital (e.g., small rural hospitals versus 
large metropolitan hospitals). The smallest hospital reported 82 cases 
with a burden of about 258 hours, while the largest hospital reported 
47,801 cases with a burden of about 4,125 hours.
    The total cost to NEISS respondents for 2018 was approximately 
$3,391,000. NEISS respondents enter into contracts with CPSC and are 
compensated for these costs. The average cost per respondent is 
estimated to be about $26,000. The average cost per burden hour is 
estimated to be $33.65 per hour (including wages and overhead). 
However, the actual cost to each respondent varies, due to the type of 
respondent (hospital versus CPSC contractor), size of hospital, and 
regional differences in wages and overhead. Therefore, the actual 
annual cost for any given respondent may vary between $3,048 at a small 
rural hospital, and $329,690 at the largest metropolitan hospital.

C. Other Burden Hours

    In cases that require more information regarding product-related 
incidents or injuries, CPSC staff conducts face-to-face interviews with 
approximately 375 persons each year. On average, an on-site interview 
takes about 4.5 hours. CPSC staff also conducts about 175 in-depth 
investigations (IDIs) by telephone annually. Each telephone IDI 
requires about 20 minutes. CPSC staff is planning to conduct about 50 
internet-based questionnaires per year, which require about 20 minutes 
each. The CPSC estimates 1,763 annual burden hours on these 
respondents: 1,688 hours for face-to-face interviews; 58 hours for in-
depth telephone interviews, and 17 hours for internet-based 
questionnaires. CPSC staff estimates the value of the time required for 
reporting at $36.77 an hour (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
``Employer Costs for Employee Compensation,'' March 2019: https://www.bls.govnew.releaseecec.toc.htm). At this valuation, the estimated 
annual cost to the public is about $64,826.
    The total burden hours for the information collection is 102,544 
(100,781 NEISS and 1,763 other), which is an increase of 21,334 hours. 
The increase in burden is due primarily to the increase in the number 
of emergency department charts being reviewed and coded since this 
collection of information was last approved by OMB in 2017.
    This information collection request excludes the burden associated 
with

[[Page 53709]]

other publicly available Consumer Product Safety Information Databases, 
such as internet complaints, Hotline, and Medical Examiners and 
Coroners Alert Project (MECAP) reports, which are approved under OMB 
control number 3041-0146. This information collection request also 
excludes the burden associated with follow-up investigations conducted 
by other federal agencies.

D. Request for Comments

    The CPSC solicits written comments from all interested persons 
about the proposed collection of information. The CPSC specifically 
solicits information relevant to the following topics:
     Whether the collection of information described above is 
necessary for the proper performance of the CPSC's functions, including 
whether the information would have practical utility;
     Whether the estimated burden of the proposed collection of 
information is accurate;
     Whether the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected could be enhanced; and
     Whether the burden imposed by the collection of 
information could be minimized by use of automated, electronic or other 
technological collection techniques, or other forms of information 
technology.

Alberta E. Mills,
Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission.
[FR Doc. 2019-21875 Filed 10-7-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6355-01-P