[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 65 (Friday, April 3, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18977-18978]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-06940]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

[60Day-20-0055; Docket No. ATSDR-2020-0001]


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 effort to reduce public burden and maximize 
the utility of government information, invites the general public and 
other Federal agencies the opportunity to comment on a proposed and/or 
continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on an extension of 
an existing information collection titled ``ATSDR Communication 
Activities Survey (ACAS)'' which will continue to 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: ATSDR must receive written comments on or before June 2, 2020.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. ATSDR-
2020-0001 by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Jeffrey M. Zirger, 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. ATSDR will post, without change, all relevant 
comments to Regulations.gov.
    Please note: Submit all comments 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 Jeffrey M. Zirger, 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 the OMB for approval. To 
comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a 
proposed data collection as described below.
    The OMB is particularly interested in comments that will help:
    1. Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
    2. Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of 
the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used;
    3. Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected; and
    4. Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic 
submissions of responses.
    5. Assess information collection costs.

Proposed Project

    ATSDR Communication Activities Survey (ACAS) (OMB Control No. 0923-
0055, Exp. 6/30/2020)--Extension--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

[[Page 18978]]

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 extension 
information collection request (ICR) titled the ``ATSDR Communication 
Activities Survey (ACAS)'' (OMB Control No. 0923-0055, expiration date 
06/30/2020) are to continue 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. During 2018, ATSDR implemented the ATSDR 
Community Activities Survey (ACAS) to evaluate its risk communication 
efforts. One hundred and twenty-five surveys were collected from seven 
sites (62% paper/38% online).
    Over the next three years, recruitment will continue to 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 Paperwork Reduction Act clearance for 
this extension 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 (six to seven 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% community members (n=125 per 
year) and 25% 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% of respondents will 
choose the self-administered ACAS, 15% will choose the online ACAS, and 
5% will choose the telephone ACAS.
    There are no costs to the respondents other than their time. There 
are no changes to the estimated number of respondents, and the total 
annual time burden requested remains at 49 hours per year.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                                      Average
                                                     Number of       Number of      burden per     Total burden
      Type of respondents           Form name       respondents    responses per   response  (in    (in hours.)
                                                                    respondent        hours.)
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Community Members.............  Sign In Sheet...             125               1            2/60               4
                                Hardcopy ACAS...             100               1           15/60              25
                                Online ACAS.....              19               1           15/60               5
                                Telephone ACAS..               6               1           15/60               2
Agency Stakeholders...........  Sign In Sheet...              42               1            2/60               1
                                Hardcopy ACAS...              34               1           15/60               9
                                Online ACAS.....               6               1           15/60               2
                                Telephone ACAS..               2               1           15/60               1
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.....................  ................  ..............  ..............  ..............              49
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Jeffrey M. Zirger,
Lead, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 
Integrity, Office of Science, Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2020-06940 Filed 4-2-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P