Information collection request
New
State Surveillance UnDer the National Toxic Substance Incidents PROGRAM
Supporting Statement Part B
Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods
OMB No. 0923-NEW
April 2014
Project Officer
Maureen Orr, MS
Surveillance Team Lead
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
4770
Buford Highway, Mailstop F-58
Atlanta, GA 30341
Phone 770-488-3806
Fax 770-488-7187
Program Official
D. Kevin Horton, DrPH, MSPH
Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch Chief
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
4770 Buford Highway, Mailstop F-58
Atlanta, GA 30341
Phone 770-488-1555
Fax 770-488-7187
B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods 3
1. Respondent Universe and Sampling Methods 3
2. Procedures for the Collection of Information 3
3. Methods to Maximize Response Rates and Deal with Non-response 4
4. Tests of Procedures or Methods to be Undertaken 4
5. Individuals Consulted on Statistical Aspects and Individuals Collecting and/or 4
Although this ICR does not use any statistical methodology, this section describes how the data will be collected.
The National Toxic Substance Incidents Program (NTSIP) will be an ongoing surveillance system that actively collects information on chemical incidents from participating states. The NTSIP coordinators in participating states will actively identify and gather information on all reported toxic substance incidents. Therefore, the information collected should be representative of the participating states.
As described in Section A.12, the respondent universe includes state, but not federal, NTSIP coordinators who collect existing information. If additional information is needed, NTSIP coordinators may interview additional respondents, including the on-scene commander of the incident, emergency government services, the responsible party, other state and local government agencies, hospitals, and/or local poison control centers.
The NTSIP coordinators collect information in two phases. During the first phase, the NTSIP coordinators will collect information from a variety of existing data sources. Based on previous experiences with ATSDR’s Hazardous Substances Emergency Events Surveillance (HSEES), it is expected that approximately 65% of the information will be obtained from existing data sources. The second phase of the information collection will require the NTSIP coordinators to request information from additional respondents on the incident via interviews. Approximately 35% of the information is expected to be obtained through email or telephone interviews. For more information, see Section A.1.1.
The NTSIP coordinators will be trained to conduct all activities using multiple training methods: in-person training, training videos, case studies, training aides, and the NTSIP training manual (Attachment F).
The ATSDR employs a full-time statistician to perform quarterly quality assurance and quality control checks. The NTSIP coordinators will receive quarterly reports from the ATSDR that will contain missing data fields and questionable data and will be asked to complete these fields. At the end of the year, incidents that do not have complete information on the chemical involved and the date of the incident will not be included in the final dataset. In past experiences with HSEES, only a handful of incidents were excluded for this reason. Data on victims will also be excluded from the final dataset if key information (the category of the victim, the severity of injury, and the type of injury that occurred) is missing at the end of the year. In past experiences with HSEES, only a dozen victims were excluded due to missing this key information.
One of the components of the NTSIP is a national incident estimates database. The national incident estimates database is designed to extrapolate the NTSIP state surveillance data to non-participating states. A past analysis conducted for ATSDR found that HSEES incidents correlated very well with two other federal spill databases, the National Response Center database (NRC) and the Department of Transportation database (DOT). It was suggested that ATSDR use the data collected by the NTSIP state surveillance system, the DOT, and the NRC to estimate the number of potential NTSIP incidents in non-participating states1.
To do this, the number of incidents in the NTSIP state surveillance system will be compared with the NRC data on fixed facility incidents and the DOT data on transportation incidents. The comparisons will produce a matching ratio for fixed facility incidents and a matching ratio for transportation incidents. The matching ratio will then be applied to the NRC (OMB # 2050-0046; expiration fate 03/31/2014) and DOT data (OMB # 2137-0039; expiration date 08/31/2014) in states that do not participate in NTSIP in order to estimate the number of NTSIP-qualifying incidents that would be expected. These estimates help non-participating states better understand the number and impact of NTSIP-qualifying incidents that occur in their states.
This ICR entails active ongoing data collection for surveillance purposes. As such, no specific measures will be taken to maximize response rates and/or deal with non-response. All identified incidents will be investigated until data are as complete as possible.
This is a new information collection request. However, the State Data Collection Form (Attachment D) is a more streamlined version of the HSEES form (OMB # 0923-0008; expiration 01/31/ 2012). Based on the HSEES experience and feedback, the State Data Collection Form and corresponding data entry system (Attachment E) were improved. Feedback included new answer choices, the introduction of skip patterns in the data entry system, and deletion or refinement of questions that were either difficult to answer or frequently missing.
The NTSIP coordinators will periodically participate in case studies to test the reliability of the data collection. Coordinator training videos with accompanying quizzes will be used. No other tests or procedures are employed.
5. Individuals Consulted on Statistical Aspects and Individuals Collecting and/or Analyzing Data
The NTSIP coordinators will be collecting the data and will be responsible for analyzing the state data. All products are reviewed and approved by the ATSDR prior to release.
Analysis and interpretation of the combined data will be conducted by the following ATSDR staff:
Maureen Orr, ATSDR Epidemiologist: 770-488-3806; [email protected]
Jennifer Wu, ATSDR Statistician: 770-488-3801; [email protected]
Natalia Melnikova, ATSDR Epidemiologist: 770-488-3697; [email protected]
Mary Anne Duncan, ATSDR Epidemiologist: 770-488-3668; [email protected]
Ayana Anderson, ATSDR Public Health Analyst: 770-488-3906; [email protected]
1 http://pscfiles.tamu.edu/library/center-publications/white-papers-and-position-statements/Developing%20a%20Roadmap%20for%20the%20Future%20of%20National%20Hazardous%20Substances%20Incident%20Surveillance.pdf.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | NCEH/ATSDR Office of Science |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-27 |