[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 136 (Tuesday, July 20, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38315-38318]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-15385]


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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 the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (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 or Commission) 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 September 20, 2021.

[[Page 38316]]


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.
    Mail/hand delivery/courier Written Submissions: Submit comments by 
mail/hand delivery/courier to: Division of the Secretariat, Consumer 
Product Safety Commission, Room 820, 4330 East West Highway, Bethesda, 
MD 20814; telephone: (301) 504-7479; email: [email protected].
    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 2021 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 statistical 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 
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 variables on several studies 
for CDC (Firearm-Related Injuries, 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).
    The current NEISS probability sample was drawn and recruited in 
1995-1996, and implemented in 1997. The current NEISS sample consists 
of 96 hospital emergency departments grouped into four strata, based on 
size, as measured by the annual number of emergency department (ED) 
visits, and a fifth stratum for children's hospitals. When a hospital 
stops participating in the NEISS, staff recruits a hospital of similar 
size and geographic location as a replacement. If a participating 
hospital closes, it is not replaced, because its closure is presumed to 
represent other hospitals that have closed nationally. As of January 1, 
2021, there are currently 81 hospitals participating in the NEISS.
    In September 2019, CPSC contracted with Westat, Inc., under CPSC 
contract 61320619F0134, to give the agency an independent statistical 
assessment of the NEISS and the NEISS-AIP samples.\1\ The primary focus 
of this contract was to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of 
keeping, expanding, or resampling the current samples of NEISS and 
NEISS-AIP hospitals. Westat recommended that CPSC redesign the NEISS 
sample, and, consistent with that recommendation, CPSC is revising its 
sampling methodology.
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    \1\ David Marker, Jim Green, Frost Hubbord, Richard Valliant, 
``Statistical Assessment of the NEISS and NEISS-AIP Samples: Final 
Technical Report,'' Westat Inc., September 24, 2020.
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    In the redesigned NEISS sample, CPSC staff uses a resampling method 
that maximizes the probability of retaining as many of the current 
NEISS hospitals as possible, while maintaining the statistical 
integrity of the NEISS. Among eligible hospital emergency departments, 
some have migrated from one stratum to another; others have come into 
existence since the last resampling of the NEISS, or ceased to exist. 
The method used in resampling the NEISS is an extension of the Keyfitz 
procedures for stratified simple random samples.\2\ Staff identified 
several advantages of retaining as many of the current NEISS hospitals 
as possible, including: (1) The contracting, data collection, and 
quality-control mechanisms already exist in the hospitals in the 
current sample; (2) it is a cost-effective procedure; and (3) there is 
less disruption in trend analysis. The new NEISS sample will contain a 
mixture of current NEISS hospitals, along with new hospitals recruited 
to join the NEISS, as follows:
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    \2\ J. Michael Brick, David R. Morganstein, Charles, L. Wolter, 
``Additional Uses for Keyfitz Selection,'' Westat Inc., 1987. 
(http://www.asasrms.org/Proceedings/papers/1987_140.pdf).

[[Page 38317]]



                                                                    New NEISS Sample
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                                                                            2021 NEISS:     2021 NEISS:     2021 NEISS:     2021 NEISS:
                         Stratum                          NEISS redesign     reporting       reporting     replacements    replacements         New
                                                                            (retained)       (dropped)      (retained)       (dropped)
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Small...................................................              43              30               0               8               3               5
Medium..................................................              26              14               1               1               0              11
Large...................................................              12              11               8               0               1               1
Very Large..............................................              11               9               0               2               0               0
Children's..............................................               8               7               1               0               0               1
                                                         -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total...............................................             100              71              10              11               4              18
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    CPSC recognizes that one of the advantages of a long-running NEISS 
sample is the ability to track trends across time, and updating the 
NEISS sample will impact that analysis. An overlap, or bridge period, 
during which data are collected from the old and the new samples, can 
adjust for any time series that crosses over two NEISS samples. CPSC 
plans to conduct a 12-month overlap as part of the implementation of 
the new NEISS sample. Having a full 12-month overlap period accounts 
better for seasonality of some consumer product-related injuries. By 
comparing estimates calculated from both samples, it is possible to 
adjust (backcast) old estimates to be consistent with the new sample. 
The overlap period will consist of all of calendar year 2023, but it is 
dependent on the successful recruitment of the 11 replacement and 18 
new hospitals. If NEISS hospital recruitment is successful, the overlap 
period will run all of calendar year 2023. The national estimates for 
2023 will be calculated using the new NEISS sample with historical 
estimates from 2022, and prior years ``backcast'' to adjust for the 
sample update. If NEISS hospital recruitment is delayed, and the 12-
month overlap period spans July 2023 through June 2024, then 2023 
national estimates will be calculated using the old NEISS sample, and 
2024 national estimates would use the new NEISS sample.
    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 July 31, 2022. However, to 
reflect CPSC's revised sampling methodology and resulting changes to 
the associated burden hours, CPSC is providing notice in this document 
prior to the expiration date, and now proposes to request an extension 
of approval of this updated 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 hospitals in 
the United States. The number of hospitals participating in CY 2021 
through CY 2024 will fluctuate from the current 81 reporting, to as 
high as 110.
    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, and other tasks takes 
from 2.5 to 6 hours weekly. Each record requires 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 
on additional special study information (Adverse Drug Effects) takes 
about 2 minutes and 90 seconds per record for other special studies. 
Respondents also spend about 8 to 36 hours per year in related 
activities (training, evaluations, and communicating with other 
hospital staff).
    During CY 2023, assuming there will be a total of 110 hospitals 
participating in the NEISS, with an estimated 160 NEISS respondents 
(total hospitals and CPSC contractors), these NEISS respondents will 
review an estimated 6 million emergency department records and report 
1.2 million total cases (470,000 consumer product-related injuries for 
CPSC, and 730,000 other injuries for the NEISS-AIP). The table below 
lists the estimated number of reported cases, and the estimated number 
of reported cases with additional special study information.

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Total NEISS Cases Reported..............................     1.2 million
Consumer Product-Related Injuries.......................         470,000
CDC NEISS-AIP...........................................         730,000
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               Special Studies Reported (subset of above)
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Child Poisoning (CPSC)..................................           5,000
Adverse Drug Events (CDC)...............................          94,000
Assaults (CDC)..........................................          84,000
Firearm-Related Injuries (CDC)..........................          12,000
Self-Inflicted Violence (CDC)...........................          22,000
Work-Related Injuries (CDC).............................          54,000
Motor Vehicle Non-Crash Injuries (NHTSA)................          17,000
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    The total burden hours for all NEISS respondents are estimated to 
be 130,000 for CY 2023. The average burden hours per respondent is 800 
hours. However, the total burden hours on each respondent varies, due 
to differences in the sizes of the hospitals (e.g., small rural 
hospitals versus large metropolitan hospitals). The smallest hospital 
will report an estimated 250 cases, with a burden of about 150 hours; 
while the largest hospital will report an estimated 60,000 cases, with 
a burden of about 4,500 hours.
    The total costs to NEISS respondents for CY 2023 are estimated at 
$6.5 million. NEISS respondents enter into contracts with CPSC and are 
compensated for these costs. The average cost per respondent is 
estimated to be $41,000. The average cost per burden hour is estimated 
to be $50 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 from $3,000 for a small rural hospital, up to 
$450,000 for 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 2,000 in-depth 
investigations (IDIs) by telephone annually using a Computer Assisted 
Telephone Interview (CATI) or self-administered Computer Assisted 
internet Interview (CAII) questionnaires. Each CATI or CAII IDI 
requires about 20 minutes. CPSC staff estimates 2,355 annual burden 
hours on these

[[Page 38318]]

respondents: 1,688 hours for face-to-face interviews; 667 hours for in-
depth telephone or internet interviews. CPSC's staff estimates the 
value of the time required for reporting is $38.60 an hour (U.S. Bureau 
of Labor Statistics, ``Employer Costs for Employee Compensation,'' 
March 2021: https://www.bls.gov>new.release >ecec.toc.htm). At this 
valuation, the estimated annual cost to the public is about $90,903. 
The cost to the government for the collection of this NEISS information 
is estimated to be about $8.9 million a year. This estimate includes 
$6.5 million in compensation to NEISS respondents, as described above.
    This information collection request excludes the burden associated 
with 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. 2021-15385 Filed 7-19-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6355-01-P