[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 195 (Tuesday, October 8, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53702-53707]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-21944]


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CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION

[Docket No. CPSC-2010-0041]


Collection of Information; Proposed Extension of Approval; 
Comment Request--Publicly Available Consumer Product Safety Information 
Database

AGENCY: Consumer Product Safety Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the 
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) requests comments on a 
proposed extension of approval of a collection of information for the 
Publicly Available Consumer Product Safety Information Database. The 
CPSC will consider all comments received in response to this notice 
before requesting an extension of approval of this collection of 
information from the Office of Management and Budget (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-2010-
0041, 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. CPSC does not accept comments 
submitted by electronic mail (email), except through 
www.regulations.gov. 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 (for paper, disk, or CD-ROM 
submissions) 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 proposed rulemaking. All comments received 
may be posted without change, including any personal identifiers, 
contact information, or other personal information provided, to: http:/
/

[[Page 53703]]

www.regulations.gov. Do not submit electronically any confidential 
business information, trade secret information, or other sensitive or 
protected information that you do not want to be available to the 
public. If you wish to provide such information, please submit it 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-2010-0041, into the ``Search'' box, and follow the 
prompts. A copy of the supporting statement 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 212 of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 
(CPSIA) added section 6A to the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA), 
which requires the CPSC to establish and maintain a publicly available, 
searchable database (Database) on the safety of consumer products and 
other products or substances regulated by the CPSC. Among other things, 
section 6A of the CPSA requires the CPSC to collect reports of harm 
from the public for potential publication in the publicly available 
Database, and to collect and publish comments from manufacturers about 
reports of harm.
    The CPSC announced that a proposed collection of information in 
conjunction with the Database, called the Publicly Available Consumer 
Product Safety Information Database, had been submitted to OMB for 
review and clearance under 44 U.S.C. 3501-3520 in a proposed rule 
published on May 24, 2010 (75 FR 29156). The CPSC issued a final rule 
on the Database on December 9, 2010 (75 FR 76832). The final rule 
interprets various statutory requirements in section 6A of the CPSA 
pertaining to the information to be included in the Database; and the 
final rule also establishes provisions regarding submitting reports of 
harm; providing notice of reports of harm to manufacturers; publishing 
reports of harm and manufacturer comments in the Database; and dealing 
with confidential and materially inaccurate information.
    OMB approved the collection of information for the Database under 
control number 3041-0146. OMB's most recent extension of approval on 
January 31, 2017, will expire on January 31, 2020. Accordingly, the 
CPSC now proposes to request an extension of approval of this 
collection of information.

B. Information Collected Through the Database

    The primary purpose of this information collection is to populate 
the publicly searchable Database of consumer product safety information 
mandated by section 6A of the CPSA. The Database information collection 
has four components: reports of harm, manufacturer comments, branding 
information, and the Small Batch Manufacturer Registry (SBMR).
    Reports of Harm: Reports of harm communicate information regarding 
an injury, illness, or death, or any risk (as determined by CPSC) of 
injury, illness, or death, relating to the use of a consumer product. 
Reports can be submitted to the CPSC by consumers; local, state, or 
federal government agencies; health care professionals; child service 
providers; public safety entities; and others. Reports may be submitted 
in one of three ways: via the CPSC website (www.SaferProducts.gov), by 
telephone via a CPSC call center, or by email, fax, or mail using the 
incident report form (available for download or printing via the CPSC 
website). Reports may also originate as a free-form letter or email. 
Submitters must consent to including their report of harm in the 
publicly searchable Database.
    Manufacturer Comments: A manufacturer or private labeler may submit 
a comment related to a report of harm after the CPSC transmits the 
report to the manufacturer or private labeler identified in the report. 
Manufacturer comments may be submitted through the business portal, by 
email, mail, or fax. The business portal is a feature of the Database 
that allows manufacturers who register on the business portal to 
receive reports of harm and comment on such reports through the 
business portal. Use of the business portal expedites the receipt of 
reports of harm and business response times.
    A manufacturer may request that the CPSC designate information in a 
report of harm as confidential. Such a request may be made using the 
business portal, by email, by mail, or by fax. Additionally, any person 
or entity reviewing a report of harm or manufacturer comment, either 
before or after publication in the Database, may request that the 
report or comment, or portions of the report or comment, be excluded 
from the Database because it contains materially inaccurate 
information. Such a request may be made by manufacturers using the 
business portal, by email, mail or fax, and may be submitted by anyone 
else by email, mail, or fax.
    Branding Information: Using the business portal, registered 
businesses may voluntarily submit branding information to assist CPSC 
in correctly and timely routing reports of harm involving their 
products to them. Brand names may be licensed to another entity for use 
in labeling consumer products manufactured by that entity. CPSC's 
understanding of licensing arrangements for consumer products ensures 
that the correct manufacturer is timely notified regarding a report of 
harm.
    Small Batch Manufacturers Registry: The business portal also 
contains the SBMR, which is the online mechanism by which ``small batch 
manufacturers'' (as defined in the CPSA) can identify themselves to 
obtain relief from certain third party testing requirements for 
children's products. To register as a small batch manufacturer, a 
business must attest that the company's income level, and the number of 
units of the covered product manufactured for which relief is sought, 
both fall within the statutory limits to receive relief from third 
party testing.

C. Estimated Burden

1. Estimated Annual Burden for Respondents

    We estimate the burden of this collection of information as 
follows:

                         Table 1--Estimated Annual Reporting Burden for Reports of Harm
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                                     Number of       Response      Total annual     Minutes per    Total burden,
         Collection type            respondents    frequency \1\     responses       response      in hours \2\
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Reports of Harm--submitted                 5,646            1.07           6,023              12           1,205
 through website................
Reports of Harm--submitted by              1,397            1.02           1,418              10             236
 phone..........................
Reports of Harm--submitted by                349           43.88          15,314              20           5,105
 mail, email, fax...............
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[[Page 53704]]

 
    Total.......................           7,392  ..............          22,755  ..............           6,546
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                     Table 2--Estimated Annual Reporting Burden for Manufacturer Submissions
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                                     Number of       Response      Total annual     Minutes per    Total burden,
         Collection type            respondents    frequency \1\     responses       response      in hours \2\
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer Comments--submitted           2,311            1.06           2,461             117           4,799
 through website................
Manufacturer Comments--submitted             182            1.90             346             147             848
 by mail, email, fax............
Requests to Treat Information as               2            1.00               2              42               1
 Confidential--submitted through
 website........................
Requests to Treat Information as               0             n/a               0              72               0
 Confidential--submitted by
 mail, email, fax...............
Requests to Treat Information as             141            1.19             168             165             462
 Materially Inaccurate--
 submitted through website......
Requests to Treat Information as              25            1.12              28             195              91
 Materially Inaccurate--
 submitted by mail, email, fax..
Voluntary Brand Identification..             932            1.37           1,281              10             214
Small Batch Manufacturer                   2,292               1           2,292              10             382
 Identification.................
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    Total.......................           5,885  ..............           6,578  ..............           6,797
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    Based on the data set forth in Tables 1 and 2 above, the annual 
reporting cost is estimated to be $691,884. This estimate is based on 
the sum of two estimated total figures for reports of harm and 
manufacturer submissions. The estimated number of respondents and 
responses are based on the actual responses received in FY 2018. We 
assume that the number of responses and respondents will be similar in 
future years.
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    \1\ Frequency of responses is calculated by dividing the number 
of responses by the number of respondents.
    \2\ Numbers have been rounded.
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    Reports of Harm: Table 1 sets forth the data used to estimate the 
burden associated with submitting reports of harm. We had previously 
estimated the time associated with the electronic and telephone 
submission of reports of harm at 12 and 10 minutes, respectively; and 
because we have had no indication that these estimates are not 
appropriate or accurate, we used those figures for present purposes as 
well. We estimate that the time associated with a paper or PDF form 
would be 20 minutes, on average.
    To estimate the costs for submitting reports of harm, we multiplied 
the estimated total burden hours associated with reports of harm (1,205 
hours + 236 hours + 5,105 hours = 6,546 hours) by an estimated total 
compensation for all workers in private industry of $34.05 per hour,\3\ 
which results in an estimated cost of $222,891 (6,546 hours x $34.05 
per hour = $222,891).
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    \3\ U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table 
9 of the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), Private 
Industry, goods-producing and service-providing industries, by 
occupational group, Dec 2018 (data extracted on 8/2/2019 from: 
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.t09.htm.
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    Manufacturer Submissions: Table 2 sets forth the data used to 
estimate the burden associated with manufacturers' submissions to the 
Database. We observed that a large percentage of the general comments 
come from a few businesses, and we assumed that the experience of a 
business that submits many comments each year would be different from 
one that submits only a few. Accordingly, we divided all responding 
businesses into three groups based on the number of general comments 
submitted in FY 2018, and then we selected several businesses to 
contact from each group. The first group contacted consisted of 
businesses that submitted 50 or more comments in FY 2018, accounting 
for 31 percent of all general comments received. The second group 
contacted included businesses that submitted 6 to 49 comments, 
accounting for 39 percent of all general comments received. The last 
group contacted included businesses that submitted no more than 5 
comments, accounting for 30 percent of all general comments received. 
We asked each company how long it typically takes to research, compose, 
and enter a comment or a claim of materially inaccurate information.
    To estimate the burden associated with submitting a general comment 
regarding a report of harm through the business portal, we averaged the 
burden provided by each company within each group, and then we 
calculated a weighted average from the three groups, weighting each 
group by the proportion of comments received from that group. We found 
that the average time to submit a general comment regarding a report of 
harm is 117 minutes, based on the data in Table 3 (((15 minutes + 45 
minutes + 30 minutes + 15 minutes)/4 companies)*.31 + ((105 minutes + 
45 minutes + 150 minutes + 15 minutes)/4 companies)*.39 + ((240 minutes 
+ 60 minutes + 480 minutes)/3 companies)*.30 = 117 minutes).

  Table 3--Estimated Burden to Enter a General Comment in the Database
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              Group                     Company        General Comments
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Group 1.........................  Company A.........  15 minutes.
(> = 50 comments)...............  Company B.........  45 minutes.
                                  Company C.........  30 minutes.
                                  Company D.........  15 minutes.

[[Page 53705]]

 
Group 2.........................  Company A.........  105 minutes.
(6-49 comments).................  Company B.........  45 minutes.
                                  Company C.........  150 minutes.
                                  Company D.........  15 minutes.
Group 3.........................  Company A.........  240 minutes.
(> = 5 comments)................  Company B.........  60 minutes.
                                  Company C.........  480 minutes.
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    Registered businesses generally submit comments through our 
website. Unregistered businesses submit comments by mail, email, or 
fax. We estimate that submitting comments via mail, email, or fax takes 
a little longer because often, we must ask businesses to amend their 
submissions to include the required certifications. Thus, we estimated 
that, on average, comments submitted by mail, email, or fax take 30 
minutes longer than comments submitted through our website (117 minutes 
+ 30 minutes = 147 minutes).
    The submission of a claim of materially inaccurate information is a 
relatively rare event for all respondents, so we averaged all responses 
together. Eight of the businesses contacted had submitted claims of 
materially inaccurate information. We found that the average time to 
submit a claim that a report of harm contains a material inaccuracy is 
165 minutes ((30 minutes + 90 minutes + 45 minutes + 90 minutes + 60 
minutes + 660 minutes + 45 minutes + 300 minutes)/8 companies = 165 
minutes).
    Registered businesses generally submit claims through the business 
portal. Unregistered businesses submit claims by mail, email, or fax. 
We estimate that submitting claims via mail, email, or fax takes a 
little longer because often, we must ask businesses to amend their 
submission to include the required certifications. Thus, we estimated 
that, on average, claims submitted by mail, email, or fax take 30 
minutes longer than those submitted through our website (165 minutes + 
30 minutes = 195 minutes).
    The submission of a claim of confidential information is a 
relatively rare event for all respondents, so we averaged all responses 
together. Five of the businesses contacted had submitted claims of 
confidential information. We found that the average time to submit a 
claim that a report of harm contains confidential information is 42 
minutes ((45 minutes + 15 minutes + 60 minutes + 30 minutes + 60 
minutes)/5 companies = 42 minutes).
    Registered businesses generally submit confidential information 
claims through the business portal. Unregistered businesses submit 
confidential information claims by mail, email, or fax. We estimate 
that submitting claims by mail, email, or fax takes a little longer 
because often, we must ask businesses to amend their submission to 
include the required certifications. Thus, we estimate that a 
confidential information claim submitted by mail, email, or fax would 
take 30 minutes longer than those submitted through our website (42 
minutes + 30 minutes = 72 minutes).
    For voluntary brand identification, we estimate that a response 
would take 10 minutes, on average. Most responses consist only of the 
brand name and a product description. In many cases, a business will 
submit multiple entries in a brief period of time, and we can see from 
the date and time stamps on these records that an entry often takes 
less than 2 minutes. CPSC staff enters the same data in a similar form, 
based on our own research, and that experience was also factored into 
our estimate.
    For small batch manufacturer identification, we estimate that a 
response would take 10 minutes, on average. The form consists of three 
check boxes and the information should be readily accessible to the 
respondent.
    The responses summarized in Table 2 are generally submitted by 
manufacturers. To avoid underestimating the cost associated with the 
collection of this data, we assigned the higher hourly wage associated 
with a manager or professional in goods-producing industries to these 
tasks. To estimate the cost of manufacturer submissions, we multiplied 
the estimated total burden hours in Table 2 (6,797 hours), by an 
estimated total compensation for a manager or professional in goods-
producing industries of $69.00 per hour,\4\ which results in an 
estimated cost of $468,993 (6,797 hours x $69.00 per hour = $468,993).
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    \4\ U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table 
9 of the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), Private 
Industry, goods-producing and service-providing industries, by 
occupational group, December 2018 (data extracted on 09/13/2019 
from: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.t09.htm.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Therefore, the total estimated annual cost to respondents is 
$691,884 ($222,891 burden for reports of harm + $468,993 burden for 
manufacturer submissions = $691,884).

2. Estimated Annual Burden on Government

    We estimate the annualized cost to the CPSC to be $982,166. This 
figure is based on the costs for four categories of work for the 
Database: Reports of Harm, Materially Inaccurate Information Claims, 
Manufacturer Comments, and Small Batch Identification. Each category is 
described below. No government cost is associated with voluntary brand 
identification because this information is entered directly into the 
Database by the manufacturer with no processing required by the 
government. The information assists the government in directing reports 
of harm to the correct manufacturer. We did not attempt to calculate 
separately the government cost for claims of confidential information 
because the number of claims is so small. The time to process these 
claims is included with claims of materially inaccurate information.
    Reports of Harm: The Reports of Harm category includes many 
different tasks. Some costs related to this category are from two data 
entry contracts. Tasks related to these contracts include clerical 
coding of the report, such as identifying the type of consumer product 
reported and the appropriate associated hazard, as well as performing 
quality control on the data in the report. Contractor A spends an 
estimated 5,267 hours per year performing these tasks. With an hourly 
rate of $38.10 for contractor services, the annual cost to the 
government of contract A is $200,673. Contractor B spends an estimated 
2,029 hours per year performing these tasks. With an hourly rate of 
$41.33 for contractor services, the annual cost to the government of 
contract B is $83,859.
    The Reports of Harm category also includes sending consent requests 
for

[[Page 53706]]

reports when necessary, processing that consent when received, 
determining whether a product is out of CPSC's jurisdiction, and 
confirming that pictures and attachments do not have any personally 
identifiable information. The Reports of Harm category also entails 
notifying manufacturers when one of their products is reported, 
completing a risk of harm determination form for every report eligible 
for publication, referring some reports to a Subject Matter Expert 
(SME) within the CPSC for a determination on whether the reports meet 
the requirement of having a risk of harm, and determining whether a 
report meets all the statutory and regulatory requirements for 
publication. Detailed costs are:

                                Table 4--Estimated Costs for Reports of Harm Task
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                                                                                       Total
                           Grade level                               Number of     compensation    Total annual
                                                                  hours (annual)     per hour          cost
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Contract A......................................................           5,267          $38.10        $200,673
Contract B......................................................           2,029           41.33          83,859
7...............................................................             200           37.37           7,474
9...............................................................             300           45.72          13,716
12..............................................................           5,528           66.31         366,562
13..............................................................             428           78.84          33,744
14..............................................................           1,068           93.18          99,516
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................................          14,820  ..............         825,544
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    Materially Inaccurate Information (MII) Claims: The MII claims 
category includes reviewing and responding to claims, participating in 
meetings where the claims are discussed, and completing a risk of harm 
determination on reports when a company alleges that a report does not 
describe a risk of harm.

                                  Table 5--Estimated Costs for MII Claims Task
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                                                                                       Total
                           Grade level                               Number of     compensation    Total annual
                                                                  hours (annual)     per hour          cost
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12..............................................................             275          $66.31         $18,235
13..............................................................             167           78.84          13,166
14..............................................................             323           93.18          30,097
15..............................................................              50          109.60           5,480
SES.............................................................              50          131.52           6,576
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................................             865  ..............       73,554.00
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    Manufacturer Comments: The Comments category includes reviewing and 
accepting or rejecting comments.

                             Table 6--Estimated Costs for Manufacturer Comments Task
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                                                                                       Total
                           Grade level                               Number of     compensation    Total annual
                                                                  hours (annual)     per hour          cost
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12..............................................................              62          $66.31          $4,111
13..............................................................             109           78.84           8,594
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................................             171  ..............          12,705
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    Small Batch Manufacturer Identification: The Small Batch 
Manufacturer Identification category includes time spent posting the 
list of small batch registrations, as well as answering companies' 
questions on registering as a Small Batch Manufacturer and the 
implications of small batch registration.

                                  Table 7--Estimated Costs for Small Batch Task
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                                                                                       Total
                           Grade level                               Number of     compensation    Total annual
                                                                  hours (annual)     per hour          cost
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15..............................................................             642         $109.60         $70,363
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[[Page 53707]]

 
    Total.......................................................             642  ..............          70,363
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    We estimate the annualized cost to the CPSC of $954,531, by adding 
the four categories of work related to the Database summarized in 
Tables 4 through 7 (Reports of Harm ($825,544) + MII Claims ($73,554) + 
Manufacturer Comments ($12,705) + Small Batch Identification ($70,363) 
= $982,166).
    This information collection renewal request is based on an 
estimated 13,343 burden hours per year for the Database, which 
represents an increase of 983 hours since this collection of 
information was last approved by OMB in 2017. The increase in burden is 
due primarily to the increase in the number of incoming reports of 
harm, and the increase in the number of claims based on those reports. 
Comments have also increased significantly, but shifted to the more 
efficient, online submission. A slight increase in small batch 
manufacturer activity occurred, as well, which has been rising steadily 
for years.

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.
     Whether the burden imposed by the collection of 
information could be minimized by using automated, electronic, or other 
technological collection techniques, or other forms of information 
technology.

Alberta E. Mills,
Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission.
[FR Doc. 2019-21944 Filed 10-7-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6355-01-P