Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and Recommendations

[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 49 (Monday, March 15, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12811-12813]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-6211]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[INFO-99-11]


Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

    In compliance with the requirement of section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 for opportunity for public comment on 
proposed data collection projects, the Center for Disease Control and 
Prevention. To request more information on the proposed projects or to 
obtain a copy of the data collection plans and instruments, call the 
CDC Reports Clearance Officer on (404) 639-7090.
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways 
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including through the use of automated collection techniques for other 
forms of information technology. Send comments to Seleda Perryman, CDC 
Assistant Reports Clearance Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-D24, 
Atlanta, GA 30333. Written comments should be received with 60 days of 
this notice.

Proposed Project

    1. National Sexually Transmitted Disease Morbidity Surveillance 
System--Extension--(0920-0011)--The National Center for HIV, STD, and 
TB Prevention (NCHSTP)--The reports used for this surveillance system 
provide ongoing surveillance data on national sexually transmitted 
disease

[[Page 12812]]

morbidity. The data are used by health care planners at the national, 
state, and local (including selected metropolitan and territorial 
health departments) levels to develop and evaluate STD prevention and 
control programs. In addition, there are many other users of the data 
including scientists, researchers, educators, and the media. STD data 
gathered in these reports are used to produce national statistics 
published in the annual STD Surveillance Report, MMWR articles, and 
serve as a progress report to meet objectives in Healthy People 2000: 
Midcourse Review and 1995 Revisions. It is important to note that these 
reporting forms are in the process of being phased out and replaced by 
electronic, line-listed STD data collected in the National Electronic 
Telecommunications System for Surveillance (NETSS).
    Costs are covered by way of cooperative agreements to the project 
areas. The annual cost to respondents is estimated at $12,627 based on 
an estimated hourly salary of $15.25 for health department personnel 
responsible for completing these forms.

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                                                                      No. of
                      Forms                           No. of        responses/      Avg. burden    Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent       (in hrs.)       (in hrs.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CDC 73.688 *....................................              36               4          1                  144
CDC 73.688 * *..................................              27               4          1                  108
CDC 73.998......................................              36              12          0.5833             252
CDC 73.2638.....................................              36               3          3                  324
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................  ..............  ..............  ..............            828
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*State-level reporting: Respondents for the state-specific CDC 73.688 forms now include 26 state health
  departments (originally, respondents included 50 states, but 24 states have now discontinued hardcopy
  reporting and send all STD data as electronic line-listed records through NETSS), seven large city health
  departments and three outlying areas.
* * City-level reporting: The health departments for the 26 states and one of the outlying regions (Puerto Rico)
  also prepare and submit reports for additional large cities within their jurisdictions.

    2. Evaluation of the Needlestick Injury Alert--NEW--The mission of 
the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is to 
promote ``safety and health at work for all people through research and 
prevention.'' NIOSH not only investigates and identifies occupational 
safety and health hazards, the Institute also develops recommendations 
for controlling those hazards. In some cases, NIOSH distributes these 
recommendations about the hazard directly to affected workplaces.
    One way that NIOSH accomplishes this is through the Alert. The 
Alert is usually a six to ten page document that outlines the causes 
and detection of the hazard and recommendations for controlling the 
risk to workers. One of the central goals of the Alert is to educate 
employers and encourage them to take steps to reduce the risks to their 
workers. It is also important that the recommendations in the Alert 
provide them with sufficient information.
    The Alert chosen for this study concerns the risk of needlestick 
injuries (NSI) to health care workers. Although there is not precise 
information about the frequency of NSI in the United States, it has 
been estimated that approximately 800,000 of these injuries occur each 
year. As a result of NSI, health care workers can be exposed to HIV, 
and the Hepatitis B and C viruses. It is believed that the incidence of 
NSI account for the majority of occupational transmission of these 
pathogens to health care workers.
    In the proposed study, NIOSH will send the Alert to one of two 
individuals with formal responsibility for employee health and safety 
in hospitals--Directors of Infection Control and Directors of Health 
and Safety. NIOSH will then follow-up with a randomly selected sample 
of hospitals at two points in time. The recipient of the Alert will be 
interviewed two to six weeks after the Alert was sent and ten to 
fourteen weeks later, the other key individual will be interviewed.
    Broadly, the goals of the study are to: (1) assess whether, and 
under what circumstances, the Alert encourages employers to adopt 
control measures, and (2) ascertain whether the information in the 
Alert assists employers in implementing control measures. Overall, the 
hope is that the study will reveal ways of making the Alert a more 
effective tool for primary prevention. The total cost to respondents is 
$0.00.

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                                                                      No. of
                   Respondents                        No. of        responses/      Avg. burden    Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent     per response
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Directors of Infection Control..................             450               1          0.3333             149
Directors of Health and Safety..................             450               1          0.3333             149
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................  ..............  ..............  ..............             297
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    3. Cancer Morbidity and Mortality Among Current and Former 
Employees of the National Center for Health Statistics--NEW--Employees 
of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) have raised 
concerns regarding the number of cancers occurring among the staff in 
recent years and have asked NCHS management to investigate this 
possible cancer excess. The purpose of the proposed study is to 
determine the actual number of cancers that have been diagnosed among 
the employees of NCHS since 1991, and to determine whether the rate of 
cancer deviates from what would be expected based on rates for the 
Washington suburban area. A questionnaire will be sent to each person 
employed at NCHS during 1991 asking whether s/he has been diagnosed 
with cancer and requesting permission to contact their physician for 
confirmation; other questions will be included on the questionnaire, 
including their family history of cancer, location of NCHS office, and 
smoking status. These data will be used to judge whether the employee 
cohort has an unusual cancer risk profile compared to other similar 
cohorts and, subsequently, whether an in-depth epidemiologic study is 
necessary. Respondents include both current and former employees, but

[[Page 12813]]

for purposes of calculating a total burden under the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995, only retirees and other former employees are 
counted. The total cost to respondents is estimated at $645.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                    No. of        Avg. burden/
                 Respondents                       No. of         responses/     response  (in     Total burden
                                                respondents       respondent         hrs.)          (in hrs.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Former employees............................              86                1             0.25             21.5
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Dated: February 24, 1999.
Nancy Cheal,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
[FR Doc. 99-6211 Filed 3-12-99; 8:45 am]
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