[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 204 (Tuesday, October 26, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 59152-59154]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-23249]


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CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION

[Docket No. CPSC-2018-0005]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request; Survey on Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms

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) announces that 
the Commission has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB), a request for extension of approval for an information 
collection on a survey that will estimate the use of smoke and

[[Page 59153]]

carbon monoxide alarms in United States households. On July 23, 2021, 
the CPSC published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the 
agency's intent to seek approval of this collection of information. 
After reviewing and considering the comments, the Commission announces 
that it has submitted a request for approval of this collection of 
information to the OMB.

DATES: Submit written or electronic comments on the collection of 
information by November 26, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to: www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular 
information collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--
Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function. In 
addition, written comments that are sent to OMB also should be 
submitted electronically at: http://www.regulations.gov, under Docket 
No. CPSC-2018-0005.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cynthia Gillham, Consumer Product 
Safety Commission, 4330 East West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814; (301) 
504-7991, or by email to: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Background

    The Commission is authorized under section 5(a) of the Consumer 
Product Safety Act (CPSA), 15 U.S.C. 2054(a), to conduct studies and 
investigations relating to the causes and prevention of deaths, 
accidents, injuries, illnesses, other health impairments, and economic 
losses associated with consumer products. Section 5(b) of the CPSA, 15 
U.S.C. 2054(b), further provides that the Commission may conduct 
research, studies, and investigations on the safety of consumer 
products or test consumer products and develop product safety test 
methods and testing devices.
    In 1992, the CPSC sponsored a national in-home survey to collect 
information on the number of residential smoke alarms in actual use in 
homes and to evaluate the operability of the sampled alarms. The 
results were published in the 1994 report, Consumer Product Safety 
Commission Smoke Detector Operability Survey Report on Findings.\1\ 
Although the survey results, for many years, were instrumental in 
developing state and local codes and standards related to smoke alarms, 
subsequent changes in technology, installation codes, and state/local 
ordinances in the past 25 years have rendered the information outdated 
and less effective. Stakeholders' groups for fire loss prevention have 
identified a need for an updated national survey to increase the 
installation and maintenance of smoke alarms in the United States. In 
addition, installations of CO alarms have increased since 1992. 
Accordingly, CPSC sought to update its data information collection 
related to smoke and CO alarm use through a new survey, the National 
Smoke and CO Alarm Survey (SCOA survey).
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    \1\ 1. Charles L. Smith, Smoke Detector Operability Survey--
Report on Findings, (Bethesda, MD: CPSC, November 1993).
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    Although the SCOA survey initially commenced in January 2019, CPSC 
experienced lower response rates relative to expectations in the 
administration of the SCOA survey in fielding locations than had been 
established by the study's approved methodology. To correct for this 
challenge, and to complete the number of homes surveyed in the 
contract, CPSC undertook a revised sampling method and contact protocol 
for participant recruitment. Among the revisions to the methodology, 
CPSC included a redesign of the recruitment, screening, and in-home 
survey, based on a random walk, door-to-door knocking sample 
methodology. The SCOA survey seeks to collect information from 1,185 
households within the United States. The survey will be conducted only 
through face-to-face, in-home interviews. Following all COVID-19 safety 
precautions, survey professionals will provide prenotification door 
hangers, requesting participation in the survey. These households will 
be recruited, willing participants will be provided with consent forms, 
and the survey team will administer questions regarding the residence 
type, and smoke and CO alarm availability and functionality in the 
residences. The survey team also will identify, test, and examine 
several of the alarms in the home, as time permits; and if the alarms 
are found to be faulty, the survey team will offer to provide new 
alarms or batteries, and will do so if requested by the participant. No 
action will be taken if participants choose not to have the alarm fixed 
or replaced.
    CPSC contracted with EurekaFacts to conduct the SCOA survey through 
a national in-home survey that would estimate the use and functionality 
of smoke and CO alarms in households, as well as assess user hazard 
perceptions regarding such alarms. The purpose of the SCOA survey is to 
collect data that will assist CPSC with better estimation of the number 
and types of smoke and CO alarms installed in U.S. households, the 
proportion of working smoke and CO alarms, the characteristics of 
residences and residents where the smoke and CO alarms are not 
operational, perceptions of residents related to the causes of 
``false'' alarms or causes of faulty alarms, consumer hazard awareness, 
and consumer behavior related to alarm use and smoke and CO hazards.
    The information collected from the SCOA survey would provide CPSC 
updated national estimates regarding the use of smoke alarms and CO 
alarms in households, based on direct observation of alarm 
installations. The survey also would help CPSC identify the groups who 
do not have operable smoke alarms and/or CO alarms and help CPSC 
understand the reasons why these groups do not have such alarms. With 
this information, CPSC would be able to target its messaging better and 
help to improve consumer use and awareness regarding the operability of 
these alarms. In addition, the survey results would help to inform 
CPSC's recommendations to voluntary standards groups and state/local 
jurisdictions regarding their codes, standards, and/or regulations on 
smoke and CO alarms.

B. Burden Hours

    We estimate the number of respondents to be 1,185. We estimate the 
total annual burden hours for respondents to be 1,552 hours, based on 
the total time required to respond to the invitation, screener, and the 
actual survey. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 
total compensation for civilian workers in March 2021 was $39.01 per 
hour (Employer Cost for Employee Compensation, Table 2). Therefore, 
CPSC estimates the cost burden for respondents to be $60,544 ($39.01 
per hour x 1,552 hours = $60,543.52). The total cost to the federal 
government for the contract to design and conduct the revised survey is 
$562,725.

C. Response to Comments

    On July 23, 2021, notice of the SCOA survey was published in the 
Federal Register. 86 FR 39006. The CPSC received one comment. The 
commenter stated that although survey email may produce some results, 
door-to-door solicitation should not be conducted because people do not 
want strangers coming to their front door.
    Staff agrees that current public perceptions regarding an in-person 
survey are significantly different than when the smoke alarm survey was 
last conducted in 1992. However, the initial rollout of the survey in 
2019, soliciting

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randomly selected households via a mailed pre-notification letter, 
which were subsequently screened for an in-home or telephone interview, 
resulted in an extremely low response rate. To increase the response 
rate, the SCOA survey recruitment effort was redesigned as a door-to-
door walk-recruitment methodology. Field teams distribute door hangers 
on randomly selected households to provide prenotification that 
researchers will be knocking on doors asking for participation in a 
survey. A pilot survey conducted in the Washington metro area showed 
significant improvement in the response rate. Accordingly, to obtain 
the best information available, the SCOA survey data collection will 
continue to use this door-to-door recruitment methodology, recognizing 
that home visits by trained data collectors with inspection and testing 
provide much better-quality data compared to telephone or internet 
surveys. Accordingly, the Commission announces that it has submitted a 
request to OMB for approval of renewal of this collection of 
information.

Alberta E. Mills,
Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission.
[FR Doc. 2021-23249 Filed 10-25-21; 8:45 am]
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