3310 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 14 /Thursday, January 22, 1998 / Notices

1This guidance is not a rule. It is intended to

highlight certain obligations under the Federal

Hazardous Substances Act. Companies should read

that Act and the accompanying regulations at 16

CFR part 1500 for more detailed information.

Bureau’s existing data program

operations by producing large-scale

special tabulations from confidential

Census Bureau microdata.

Once projects are approved, project

researchers will be required to obtain

Special Sworn Status from the Census

Bureau. Obtaining this status requires

researchers to undergo a security check,

including fingerprinting. Researchers

holding Special Sworn Status will be

subject to the same criminal penalties as

regular Census Bureau employees for

disclosure of confidential information.

(The penalties are a fine of up to $5,000,

imprisonment for up to five years, or

both.) Only persons with Special Sworn

Status are allowed access to the RDC

facility. Moreover, all research findings

must be submitted to Census Bureau

personnel for disclosure review prior to

release to the public.

The estimate of the annual operating

costs is $250,000 per year, with higher

initial costs in the first year to equip the

RDC. This estimate is based upon

experience at the pilot RDCs and

includes (1) costs at the RDC of

equipment, software, space, and the

salary of the Census Bureau employee

stationed at the RDC, and (2) costs of

supporting the RDC at Census Bureau

headquarters.

RDCs must be self-financing, with

funding coming from institutions,

foundations, or state support. The NSF

is prepared to provide seed money to

assist in covering start-up costs

associated with establishing RDCs. An

organization proposing to establish an

RDC can request from the NSF up to

$100,000 per year for a three-year term

to cover part of the start-up costs and

annual operating costs associated with

establishing the RDC. Determinations on

these requests will be made by NSF.

RDCs may charge fees to researchers

not supported by the NSF to help defray

facilities costs. It is the goal of the NSF

and the Census Bureau in establishing

these centers that these fees will be kept

low in order to promote widespread

access to the data by the academic

community, contingent on sufficient

funding to cover annual operating costs.

The NSF will continue to provide

support through its regular grant

competition for faculty time and

graduate student assistance on

individual research projects that use

RDC facilities. NSF-funded individual

research projects can be charged access

fees once NSF institutional support has

been phased out.

Proposals to establish RDCs must

follow the standard NSF proposal

format. They can be submitted for the

NSF winter 1998 proposal review cycle,

with a proposal submission deadline of

March 1, 1998. Thereafter, proposals

will be accepted for the August 15 and

January 15 review cycles until further

notice. The pace of expansion of RDCs

will be limited by the capacity of the

Census Bureau to provide adequate

support and oversight. It is anticipated

that up to four additional RDCs can be

supported in the next two to three years.

Proposals should be formally

submitted to the Division of Social,

Behavioral, and Economic Research

(SBER) at the NSF. Detailed information

on proposal guidelines and review

procedures is available on the NSF web

site <http://www.nsf.gov>. Proposals

will be reviewed jointly by relevant peer

review panels, including Economics;

Methodology, Measurement, and

Statistics; and Sociology. Final

decisions will be made jointly by the

Census Bureau and the NSF.

A detailed prospectus is available on

the Census Bureau World Wide Web site

(http://www.census.gov/ces/ces.html).

The prospectus gives more information

on the expected contents of the proposal

and the expected roles of both the

Census Bureau and its partners in RDC

operations, including costs. For more

information, contact Arnold Reznek at

(301) 457–1856 (areznek@census.gov),

John Haltiwanger at (301) 457–1848

(jhaltiwa@census.gov), Cheryl Eavey

(ceavey@nsf.gov), or Daniel Newlon

(dnewlon@nsf.gov). Those who do not

have web access may contact Kim

Austin at (301) 457–1848

(kaustin@census.gov) to obtain a paper

copy of the prospectus.

Notwithstanding any other provision

of law, no person is required to respond,

nor shall a person be subject to a

penalty for failure to comply with a

collection of information subject to the

requirements of the Paperwork

Reduction Act unless that collection of

information displays a currently valid

Office of Management and Budget

(OMB) control number. The collection

of information contained in the Notice

is cleared under OMB Control Number

3145–0058.

It has been determined that this notice

is not significant under Executive Order

12866.

Dated: January 12, 1998.

Bradford R. Huther,

Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer,

Bureau of the Census.

[FR Doc. 98–1504 Filed 1–21–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–07–P

CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY

COMMISSION

Notice of Approval of Guidance

Document on Lead in Consumer

Products

AGENCY: Consumer Product Safety

Commission.

ACTION: Notice of approval of guidance

document on lead in consumer

products.

SUMMARY: The Commission announces

that it has approved a statement that

provides guidance for manufacturers,

importers, distributors, and retailers of

consumer products that may contain

lead.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Laura Washburn, Office of Compliance,

Consumer Product Safety Commission,

Washington, D.C. 20207; telephone

(301) 504–0400, ext. 1452.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The text of the guidance document is

as follows:

Guidance for Lead (Pb) in Consumer

Products

Summary

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety

Commission issues this guidance to

manufacturers, importers, distributors,

and retailers to protect children from

hazardous exposure to lead in consumer

products.1 The Commission identifies

the major factors that it considers when

evaluating products that contain lead,

and informs the public of its experience

with products that have exposed

children to potentially hazardous

amounts of lead.

To reduce the risk of hazardous

exposure to lead, the Commission

requests manufacturers to eliminate the

use of lead that may be accessible to

children from products used in or

around households, schools, or in

recreation. The Commission also

recommends that, before purchasing

products for resale, importers,

distributors, and retailers obtain

assurances from manufacturers that

those products do not contain lead that

may be accessible to children.

Hazard

Young children are most commonly

exposed to lead in consumer products

from the direct mouthing of objects, or

from handling such objects and

subsequent hand-to-mouth activity. The
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 14 /Thursday, January 22, 1998 / Notices 3311

specific type and frequency of behavior

that a child exposed to a product will

exhibit depends on the age of the child

and the characteristics and pattern of

use of the product. The adverse health

effects of lead poisoning in children are

well-documented and may have longlasting or permanent consequences.

These effects include neurological

damage, delayed mental and physical

development, attention and learning

deficiencies, and hearing problems.

Because lead accumulates in the body,

even exposures to small amounts of lead

can contribute to the overall level of

lead in the blood and to the subsequent

risk of adverse health effects. Therefore,

any unnecessary exposure of children to

lead should be avoided. The scientific

community generally recognizes a level

of 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of

blood as a threshold level of concern

with respect to lead poisoning. To avoid

exceeding that level, young children

should not chronically ingest more than

15 micrograms of lead per day from

consumer products.

Guidance

Under the Federal Hazardous

Substances Act (FHSA), 15 U.S.C.

1261(f)(1), household products that

expose children to hazardous quantities

of lead under reasonably foreseeable

conditions of handling or use are

‘‘hazardous substances.’’ A household

product that is not intended for children

but which creates such a risk of injury

because it contains lead requires

precautionary labeling under the Act. 15

U.S.C. 1261(p). A toy or other article

intended for use by children which

contains a hazardous amount of lead

that is accessible for children to ingest

is a banned hazardous substance. 15

U.S.C. 1261(q)(1)(B). In evaluating the

potential hazard associated with

products that contain lead, the

Commission staff considers these major

factors on a case-by-case basis: the total

amount of lead contained in a product,

the bioavailability of the lead, the

accessibility of the lead to children, the

age and foreseeable behavior of the

children exposed to the product, the

foreseeable duration of the exposure,

and the marketing, patterns of use, and

life cycle of the product.

Paint and similar surface coatings

containing lead have historically been

the most commonly-recognized sources

of lead poisoning among the products

within the Commission’s jurisdiction.

The Commission has, by regulation,

banned (1) paint and other similar

surface coatings that contain more than

0.06% lead (‘‘lead-containing paint’’),

(2) toys and other articles intended for

use by children that bear leadcontaining paint, and (3) furniture

articles for consumer use that bear leadcontaining paint. 16 CFR part 1303. In

recent years, however, the Commission

staff has identified a number of

disparate products—some intended for

use by children and others simply used

in or around the household or in

recreation—that presented a risk of lead

poisoning from sources other than paint.

These products included vinyl

miniblinds, crayons, figurines used as

game pieces, and children’s jewelry.

In several of these cases, the staff’s

determination that the products

presented a risk of lead poisoning

resulted in recalls or in the replacement

of those products with substitutes, in

addition to an agreement to discontinue

the use of lead in future production. The

Commission believes that, had the

manufacturers of these lead-containing

products acted with prudence and

foresight before introducing the

products into commerce, they would

not have used lead at all. This in turn

would have eliminated both the risk to

young children and the costs and other

consequences associated with the

corrective actions.

The Commission urges manufacturers

to eliminate lead in consumer products

to avoid similar occurrences in the

future. However, to avoid the possibility

of a Commission enforcement action, a

manufacturer who believes it necessary

to use lead in a consumer product

should perform the requisite analysis

before distribution to determine

whether the exposure to lead causes the

product to be a ‘‘hazardous substance.’’

If the product is a hazardous substance

and is also a children’s product, it is

banned. If it is a hazardous household

substance but is not intended for use by

children, it requires precautionary

labeling. This same type of analysis also

should be performed on materials

substituted for lead.

The Commission also notes that,

under the FHSA, any firm that

purchases a product for resale is

responsible for determining whether

that product contains lead and, if so,

whether it is a ‘‘hazardous substance.’’

The Commission, therefore,

recommends that, prior to the

acquisition or distribution of such

products, importers, distributors, and

retailers obtain information and data,

such as analyses of chemical

composition or accessibility, relevant to

this determination from manufacturers,

or have such evaluations conducted

themselves.

Dated: January 15, 1998.

Sadye E. Dunn,

Secretary, Consumer Product Safety

Commission.

[FR Doc. 98–1456 Filed 1–21–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6355–01–P

CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY

COMMISSION

Sunshine Act Meeting

TIME AND DATE: Wednesday, January 28,

1998, 10:00 a.m.

LOCATION: Room 420, East West Towers,

4330 East-West Highway, Bethesda,

Maryland.

STATUS: Open to the Public.

MATTER TO BE CONSIDERED:

Bicycle Helmets

The Commission will consider

options for a final safety standard for

bicycle helmets.

For a recorded message containing the

latest agenda information, call (301)

504–0709.

CONTACT PERSON FOR ADDITIONAL

INFORMATION: Sadye E. Dunn, Office of

the Secretary, 4330 East-West Highway,

Bethesda, MD 20207 (301) 504–0800.

Dated: January 20, 1998.

Sadye E. Dunn,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 98–1665 Filed 1–20–98; 2:25 pm]

BILLING CODE 6355–01–M

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Army, Corps of

Engineers

Public Notice of Availability of the

Draft Supplemental Environmental

Impact Statement for the Limited

Reevaluation Study for the Deepening

of the Arthur Kill-Howland Hook Marine

Terminal Navigation Channels

AGENCY: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,

DoD.

ACTION: Correction.

SUMMARY: In previous Federal Register

notice (Vol. 62, No. 196, pages 52698–

52699) Thursday, October 9, 1997, make

the following correction:

On page 52698, in column 3, line 34,

the sentence ‘‘Comments will be

accepted for forty-five (45) days after

publishing of this notice.’’ should be

deleted. Unfortunately, the DSEIS,

previously experienced publishing

delays which resulted in the document

not being readily available for public

comment at the time when the previous