2018-05554. Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Survey on Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms

AGENCY:

Consumer Product Safety Commission.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC or Commission) is announcing an opportunity for public comment on a new proposed collection of information by the agency. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), federal agencies are required to publish notice in the Federal Register for each proposed collection of information and to allow 60 days for public comment in response to the notice. This notice solicits comments on a survey that will estimate the use of smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) alarms in United States households.

DATES:

Submit written or electronic comments on the collection of information by May 21, 2018.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CPSC-2018-0005, 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 Commission does not accept comments submitted by electronic mail (email), except through www.regulations.gov. The Commission encourages you to submit electronic comments by using the Federal eRulemaking Portal, as described above.

Written Submissions: Submit written submissions in the following way: Mail/hand delivery/courier to: Office of the Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Room 820, 4330 East West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814; telephone [phone].

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-2018-0005, into the “Search” box, and follow the prompts. A copy of the draft survey is available at: http://www.regulations.gov under Docket No. CPSC-2018-0005, Supporting and Related Material.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Charu Krishnan, Consumer Product Safety Commission, 4330 East West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814; [phone], or by email to: [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Under the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), federal agencies must obtain approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of information they conduct or sponsor. “Collection of information” is defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502(3) and 5 CFR 1320.3(c) and includes agency surveys. Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)) requires federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information before submitting the collection to OMB for approval. Accordingly, CPSC is publishing notice of the proposed collection of information set forth in this document.

A. Smoke and Carbon Monoxide (CO) Alarms Survey

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 were instrumental for many years 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 seeks to update its data information collection related to smoke and CO alarm use through a new survey.

CPSC has entered into a contract with Eureka Facts to conduct a national in-home survey that will estimate the use and functionality of smoke and CO alarms in households, as well as user hazard perceptions regarding such alarms. The information collected from this survey will 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 will help CPSC identify the groups that do not have operable smoke alarms and/or CO alarms and the reasons they do not have such alarms. With this information, CPSC will be able to target better its messaging to improve consumer use and awareness regarding the operability of these alarms. In addition, the survey results will 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.

The survey seeks to collect information from 1,185 households within the United States, with an initial group of 50 households that will be processed and analyzed to identify any issues regarding the survey instrument and data collection procedures. The survey will use a mixed-mode, multistage approach to data collection. The data will be collected through two modes: Face-to-face, in-home interviews, and telephone surveys. The survey instrument will be programmed on Vovici software and will be administered via in-home interviews using a Computer-Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) format, or by telephone, using a Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) format.

Smoke alarms are more prevalent in homes than CO alarms are. Accordingly, during the screening process, if respondents indicate that they have a smoke alarm that may be tested directly, the respondents will be scheduled for an in-home interview for the full survey. However, if the smoke alarm cannot be tested directly because the household does not have a smoke alarm installed, or the smoke alarms are connected to a central alarm system that will notify the police or fire department, the respondent is not eligible for the in-home survey. Instead of the in-home survey, these households would be given a subset of survey questions about safety attitudes and demographics that would be collected over the telephone. For participants eligible for in-home interviews, a two-member survey team will ask household residents questions related to installed smoke and CO alarms. The survey team will then test residents' smoke and CO alarms. If any of the alarms do not work, the survey team will offer to replace them free of charge.

B. Burden Hours

The survey interview will take between 20 to 60 minutes, depending on whether the survey is administered via the telephone (about 20 minutes) or by an in-home interview (60 minutes). We estimate the number of respondents to be 1,185. We estimate the total annual burden hours for respondents to be 1,422 hours based on the total time required to respond to the invitation, screener, and the actual survey. The monetized hourly cost is $35.64, as defined by the average total hourly cost to employers for employee compensation for employees across all occupations as of September 2017, reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Accordingly, we estimate the total annual cost burden to all respondents to be $50,680. (1,422 hours × $35.64 = $50,680.). The total cost to the federal government for the contract to design and conduct the survey is $721,773.

C. Request for Comments

The CPSC invites comments on these topics:

• Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of CPSC's functions, including whether the information will have practical utility;
• The accuracy of CPSC's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used;
• Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and
• Ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques, when appropriate, and other forms of information technology.

Alberta E. Mills,

Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Footnotes

1.  Charles L. Smith, Smoke Detector Operability Survey—Report on Findings, (Bethesda, MD: CPSC, November 1993).