Attachment F. Public Comments to the 60-day FRN and ATSDR Response

Attachment – F: Public Comments to the 60-day FRN and
ATSDR’s Response to Public Comments

Attachment – F.1: 60-day FRN Public Comment

Attachment – F.2: ATSDR’s Response to 60-day FRN Public Comment

SUPPORTING STATEMENT OF THE REQUEST FOR

OMB REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF

Evaluation of Customer Satisfaction with the
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Internet Home Page and Links

OMB PRA 60-Day Federal Register Notice: Response to Public Comments

January 19, 2007

Project POC:

James E. Tullos, Jr., MS

Public Health Advisor

ATSDR/DTEM

1600 Clifton Road, NE MS F-32

Atlanta, GA 30333

[email protected]

770-488-3498 (phone)

770-488-4178 (fax)

The OMB PRA new data collection titled “Evaluation of Customer Satisfaction with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Internet Home Page and Links” published its 60-day Federal Register Notice on December 20, 2006 and is available for public comment through February 21, 2007. (FRN Vo. 71 No. 244 Page 76341)

ATSDR has received one electronically prepared comment and has provided the following agency response(s).

Commenter - 1

Who are the "customers" you are or are not satisfying - the corporations that are polluting? They are probably very satisfied because our country is being polluted by millions upon millions of pounds of toxic substances every single year, and nobody does a thing to stop this ugly profiteering.

I think the people who live in polluted areas need to be asked what they think of what the CDC is doing. I personally think the program at CDC is far too little, too late and too negligent. The information available to the public on toxic substances, what they can do to a person, an animal a plant is extremely difficult to get. I see no reason why our federal govt. cannot get a clear concise website where all contraindications resulting from toxic substances are easily available to the public. The efforts I have seen fall far short of real help and are in fact worthless.

Response - 1

In support of the 60-day Federal Register Notice process, ATSDR provides copies of the OMB Paperwork Reduction Act Information Collection Request (IRC) and supporting statement packet as part of the response to public commenter’s or to anyone seeking a copy without comment during the 60-day time period (See Attachment-C).

Question: “Who are the customers…?”

Answer: ATSDR has designed its website to serve the general-public, persons at risk for exposure to hazardous substances, collaborating organizations, state and local governments, tribal governments, and health professionals. This statement can also be found in the IRC supporting statement Attachment-C, Page-4. Does ATSDR make any other references to customer types? To address the requirements of the IRC request, Section A-5 Small Businesses or Other Small Entities, ATSDR acknowledges that our environmental health information and our environmental medicine educational products disseminated through the ATSDR website is of interest to select segments of the business community. ATSDR further acknowledges that health professionals, many of our collaborating organizations, and governmental entities are part of the respondent universe for this data collection effort.

Question: “I think the people who live in polluted areas need to be asked what they think…?

Answer: ATSDRs website was built in response to requests from the general-public, persons at risk for exposure to hazardous substances, collaborating organizations, state and local governments, tribal governments, and health professionals to provide public access to the documents generated by ATSDR. They wanted to have direct access, through the internet, to documented findings and actions propose that may have an impact on their communities. On an ongoing basis, ATSDR receives comments via telephone, mail, fax, and e-mail asking us to make information available on Health Consultations, Public Health Assessments, or Exposure Investigations. These and other products such as the ToxProfiles^TM are all available for public comment prior to the time these are finalized. ATSDR’s proposed OMB project, Evaluation of Customer Satisfaction with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Internet Home Page and Links is an effort to seek additional comments from those who use our website. Through survey responses received, ATSDR will gain increased insights for the improvement of the websites’ informational appeal, customer responsiveness, and efficiency of accessing information for the benefit of our customers.

Question: Information available to the public on toxic substances, what they can do to a person, an animal a plant is extremely difficult to get.

Answer: ATSDR has the responsibility to provide the public information on the human health effects of chemicals. The ToxProfiles^TM draws from all available scientific literature, including animal studies, to identify and determine what is know about specific substances and their human health effect. Information from the ToxProfiles^TM is used to answer specific questions that our customers routinely ask. One such product that addresses this portion of your public comment is called ToxFAQs^TM. To locate this information a search can be started from the ATSDR Website Homepage, http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/. The homepage is arranged in a way to allow quick access to key topic areas. On the right side of the page, you will find a section titled “Quick Links.” Clicking on the link titled ToxFAQs^TM will take you to the ToxFAQs homepage at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaq.html. The benefit of using the ToxFAQs^TM home page as the central page for initiating a search for substance-specific concern such as yours can be accomplished using the A-Z (A to Z) chemical index to find frequently asked questions for each hazardous substance generally found at sites.

The ATSDR ToxFAQs™ are a series of summaries about hazardous substances developed by the ATSDR Division of Toxicology and Environmental Medicine. As noted above, information for this series is excerpted from the ATSDR Toxicological Profiles and Public Health Statements. Each fact sheet serves as a quick and easy to understand guide. Answers are provided to the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) about exposure to hazardous substances found around hazardous waste sites and the effects of exposure on human health. Each ToxFAQs™ is available in both the standard HTML and PDF formats, which provides a two page print version widely used at ATSDR community meetings. Each ToxFAQs^TM provides plain language answers to questions regarding the hazardous substance.

Question: I see no reason why our federal govt. cannot get a clear concise website where all contraindications resulting from toxic substances are easily available to the public.

Answer: ATSDR has three products lines that address issues of treatment and contraindications in a meaningful way for physicians and other health professionals. They are the Public Health Statement Series, the Case Studies in Environmental Medicine Series, and the Medical Management Guidelines Series.

• Public Health Statement Series (PHS): The ATSDR Public Health Statements homepage is located at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phshome.html. On this page, you will find the A-Z index of PHSs contained within in this series. Each Public Health Statement addresses a specific hazardous substance taken from Chapter 1 of their respective ATSDR Toxicological Profiles. Each Public Health Statement serves as a summary for the complete Toxicological Profile. The PHSs provide information in a question and answer format that address the most frequently asked questions about exposure to hazardous substances found around hazardous waste sites and the effects of exposure on human health.

• Case Studies in Environmental Medicine Series (CSEM): The CSEM homepage is located at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HEC/CSEM/csem.html. The Case Studies in Environmental Medicine is a series of self-instructional publications designed to increase the primary care provider's knowledge of hazardous substances in the environment and to aid in the evaluation of potentially exposed patients. Continuing medical education credits, continuing nursing education units, and continuing education units are offered by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in support of this series.

• Medical Management Guidelines Series (MMGs) for Acute Chemical Exposures: The MMG homepage is located at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/MHMI/mmg.html. The Medical Management Guidelines (MMGs) for Acute Chemical Exposures were developed by ATSDR to aid emergency department physicians and other emergency healthcare professionals who manage acute exposures resulting from chemical incidents. The MMGs are intended to aid healthcare professionals involved in emergency response to effectively decontaminate patients, protect themselves and others from contamination, communicate with other involved personnel, efficiently transport patients to a medical facility, and provide competent medical evaluation and treatment to exposed persons. Each MMGs provides acute exposure guidelines regarding a chemical-specific exposure scenario addressing basic chemical and exposure information, a summary of potential health effects, pre-hospital management information, emergency department management information, and information for the patient.

LIST OF ATTACHMENTS

Attachment A: ATSDR Website, ToxFAQs^TM Homepage View

Attachment B: ATSDR Website Search – Public Comments

Attachment C: OMB Paperwork Reduction Act Information Collection Request (IRC) Supporting Statement Packet Titled “Evaluation of Customer Satisfaction with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Internet Home Page and Links”

Attachment A: ATSDR Website, ToxFAQs^TM Homepage View

Attachment B: ATSDR Website Search – Public Comments

A search of ATSDRs website can be done from the homepage or from any other page on the website that has the search field box in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

Step 1: ATSDRs internet homepage can be found at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/.

Step 2: Type the phrase “Public Comments” in the search field box, then click on the “GO Button” to begin your search. The search results page utilizing the public comment search phrase is illustrated below.

Attachment C: OMB Paperwork Reduction Act Information Collection Request (IRC) Supporting Statement Packet Titled “Evaluation of Customer Satisfaction with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Internet Home Page and Links”

File Title: Customer Sat. Survey_OMB S.S._Final_v2.0_1-19-07
(Full 69-page file is available upon request)

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