60702 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 199 / Tuesday, October 14, 2008 / Notices 

divestiture reviews x 8 hours for 

preparing and participating)). 

Annual cost burden 

Using the burden hours estimated 

above, staff estimates that the total 

annual labor cost, based on a 

conservative estimated average of $425/ 

hour for executives’ and attorneys’ 

wages, would be approximately $68,000 

(160 hours x $425). There are no capital, 

start-up, operation, maintenance, or 

other similar costs to respondents. 

Review of Competition Advocacy 

Program 

The FTC’s competition advocacy 

program draws on the Commission’s 

expertise in competition and consumer 

protection matters to encourage federal 

and state legislators, courts and other 

state and federal agencies to consider 

the competitive effects of their proposed 

actions. The FTC Office of Policy 

Planning (‘‘OPP’’) sends approximately 

20 letters or written comments to 

different state and federal government 

officials annually, which provide 

guidance on the likely competitive 

effects of various laws or regulations. 

In the past, OPP has evaluated the 

effectiveness of these advocacy 

comments by surveying comment 

recipients and other relevant decision 

makers. OPP intends to continue this 

evaluation by sending a written 

questionnaire to relevant parties 

between six and nine months after an 

advocacy comment is sent. Most of the 

questions ask the respondent to agree or 

disagree with a statement concerning 

the advocacy comment that they 

received. Specifically, these questions 

inquire as to the applicability, value, 

persuasive influence, public effect, and 

informative value of the FTC’s 

comments. The questionnaire also 

provides respondents with an 

opportunity to provide additional 

remarks related either to the written 

comments received or the FTC’s 

advocacy program in general. 

Participation is voluntary. 

OPP staff estimates that on average, 

respondents will take 30 minutes or less 

to complete the questionnaire and 15 

minutes of administrative time to 

prepare the response for mailing. 

Accordingly, staff estimates that each 

respondent will incur 45 minutes of 

burden resulting in a cumulative total of 

15 burden hours per year (45 minutes of 

burden per respondent x 20 respondents 

per year). OPP staff does not intend to 

conduct any follow-up activities that 

would involve the respondents’ 

participation. 

Annual cost burden 

OPP staff estimates a conservative 

hourly labor cost of $100 for the time of 

the survey participants (primarily state 

representatives and senators) and an 

hourly labor cost of $16 for 

administrative support time. Thus, staff 

estimates a total labor cost of $54 for 

each response (30 minutes of burden at 

$100 per hour plus 15 minutes of 

burden at $16 per hour). Assuming 20 

respondents will complete the 

questionnaire on an annual basis, staff 

estimates the total annual labor costs 

will be approximately $1,080 ($54 per 

response x 20 respondents). There are 

no capital, start-up, operation, 

maintenance, or other similar costs to 

respondents. 

(d) Applicant Tracking Form: 292 

hours 

The FTC’s Human Resources 

Management Office surveys job 

applicants on their ethnicity, race, and 

disability status in order to determine if 

recruitment is effectively reaching all 

aspects of the relevant labor pool, in 

compliance with management directives 

from the Equal Opportunity 

Employment Commission. Response by 

applicants is optional. The information 

obtained is used for evaluating 

recruitment only and plays no part in 

the selection of who is hired. The 

information is not provided to selecting 

officials. Instead, the information is 

used in summary form to determine 

trends over many selections within a 

given occupational or organizational 

area. The information is treated in a 

confidential manner. No information 

from the form is entered into the official 

personnel file of the individual selected 

and all forms are destroyed after the 

conclusion of the selection process. The 

format of the questions on ethnicity and 

race are compliant with OMB 

requirements and comparable to those 

used by other agencies. 

Based upon past activity, the FTC 

staff estimates that up to 7,000 

applicants will submit the form as part 

of the new online application process 

and that the form will require 

approximately 2.5 minutes to complete, 

for an annual burden total of 

approximately 292 hours (7000 

applicants x 2.5 minutes to complete the 

form). 

Annual cost burden 

The cost per respondent should be 

negligible. Participation is voluntary 

and will not require any labor 

expenditures by respondents. There are 

no capital, start-up, operation, 

maintenance, or other similar costs to 

the respondents. 

William Blumenthal, 

General Counsel. 

[FR Doc. E8–24296 Filed 10–10–08: 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6750–01–S 

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Proposed Collection; 

Comment Request 

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission 

(‘‘Commission’’ or ‘‘FTC’’). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The FTC plans to conduct a 

study to examine consumer perception 

of environmental marketing claims. This 

activity is part of the Commission’s 

regulatory review of the Guides for the 

Use of Environmental Marketing Claims 

(‘‘Green Guides’’ or ‘‘Guides’’). Before 

gathering this information, the FTC is 

seeking public comments on the 

proposed study. Comments will be 

considered before the FTC submits a 

request for Office of Management and 

Budget (‘‘OMB’’) review under the 

Paperwork Reduction Act (‘‘PRA’’). 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before December 15, 2008. 

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are 

invited to submit written comments 

electronically or in paper form. 

Comments should refer to ‘‘Green 

Marketing Consumer Perception Study, 

Project No. P954501’’ to facilitate the 

organization of comments. Please note 

that comments will be placed on the 

public record of this proceeding— 

including on the publicly accessible 

FTC website, at (http://www.ftc.gov/os/ 

publiccomments.shtm) — and therefore 

should not include any sensitive or 

confidential information. In particular, 

comments should not include any 

sensitive personal information, such as 

an individual’s Social Security Number; 

date of birth; driver’s license number or 

other state identification number, or 

foreign country equivalent; passport 

number; financial account number; or 

credit or debit card number. Comments 

also should not include any sensitive 

health information, such as medical 

records or other individually 

identifiable health information. In 

addition, comments should not include 

any ‘‘[t]rade secrets and commercial or 

financial information obtained from a 

person and privileged or confidential 

. . .,’’ as provided in Section 6(f) of the 

FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and 

Commission Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 

4.10(a)(2) (2008). Comments containing 


jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 199 / Tuesday, October 14, 2008 / Notices 60703 

1 FTC Rule 4.2(d), 16 CFR 4.2(d). The comment 

must be accompanied by an explicit request for 

confidential treatment, including the factual and 

legal basis for the request, and must identify the 

specific portions of the comment to be withheld 

from the public record. The request will be granted 

or denied by the Commission’s General Counsel, 

consistent with applicable law and the public 

interest. See FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c) (2008). 

2 The Commission issued the Green Guides in 

1992, 57 FR 36363, and subsequently revised them 

in 1996 (61 FR 53311) and 1998 (63 FR 24240). 

3 The Guides do not, however, establish 

standards for environmental performance or 

prescribe testing protocols. 

4 72 FR 66091. 

5 See 72 FR 66094, Carbon Offsets and Renewable 

Energy Certificates (held on January 8, 2008); 73 FR 

11371, Green Packaging Claims (held on April 30, 

2008); and 73 FR 32662, Green Building and 

Textiles (held on July 8, 2008). 

material for which confidential 

treatment is requested must be filed in 

paper form, must be clearly labeled 

‘‘Confidential,’’ and must comply with 

FTC Rule 4.9(c).1

Because paper mail addressed to the 

FTC is subject to delay due to 

heightened security screening, please 

consider submitting your comments in 

electronic form. Comments filed in 

electronic form should be submitted by 

using the following weblink: (https:// 

secure.commentworks.com/ftcGreenGuidesReview) (and following the 

instructions on the web-based form). To 

ensure that the Commission considers 

an electronic comment, you must file it 

on the web-based form at the weblink 

(https://secure.commentworks.com/ftcGreenGuidesReview). If this Notice 

appears at (http://www.regulations.gov/ 

search/index.jsp), you may also file an 

electronic comment through that 

website. The Commission will consider 

all comments that regulations.gov 

forwards to it. You may also visit the 

FTC website at http://www.ftc.gov to 

read the Notice and the news release 

describing it. 

A comment filed in paper form 

should include the ‘‘Green Marketing 

Consumer Perception Study, Project No. 

P954501’’ reference both in the text and 

on the envelope, and should be mailed 

or delivered to the following address: 

Federal Trade Commission, Office of the 

Secretary, Room H-135 (Annex J), 600 

Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, 

DC 20580. The FTC is requesting that 

any comment filed in paper form be sent 

by courier or overnight service, if 

possible, because U.S. postal mail in the 

Washington area and at the Commission 

is subject to delay due to heightened 

security precautions. 

The FTC Act and other laws the 

Commission administers permit the 

collection of public comments to 

consider and use in this proceeding as 

appropriate. The Commission will 

consider all timely and responsive 

public comments that it receives, 

whether filed in paper or electronic 

form. Comments received will be 

available to the public on the FTC 

website, to the extent practicable, at 

(http://www.ftc.gov/os/ 

publiccomments.shtm). As a matter of 

discretion, the Commission makes every 

effort to remove home contact 

information for individuals from the 

public comments it receives before 

placing those comments on the FTC 

website. More information, including 

routine uses permitted by the Privacy 

Act, may be found in the FTC’s privacy 

policy, at (http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/ 

privacy.shtm). 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Laura Koss, Attorney, 202-326-2890, or 

Michael J. Davis, Attorney, 202-326- 

2458, Division of Enforcement, Bureau 

of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade 

Commission. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

The Commission issued the Green 

Guides, 16 CFR Part 260, to help 

marketers avoid making environmental 

claims that are unfair or deceptive 

under Section 5 of the FTC Act, 15 

U.S.C. 45.2 Guides are administrative 

interpretations of the law. Therefore, 

they do not have the force and effect of 

law and are not independently 

enforceable. The Guides, however, are 

the Commission’s interpretation of 

Section 5 of the FTC Act as it applies 

to environmental marketing claims. The 

Commission, therefore, can take action 

under the FTC Act if a business makes 

environmental marketing claims 

inconsistent with the Guides. In any 

such enforcement action, the 

Commission must prove that the act or 

practice at issue is unfair or deceptive. 

The Green Guides outline general 

principles that apply to all 

environmental marketing claims and 

provide guidance regarding specific 

categories of environmental claims. 

These categories include: general 

environmental benefit claims, such as 

‘‘environmentally friendly’’; degradable 

claims; compostable claims; recyclable 

claims; recycled content claims; source 

reduction claims; refillable claims; and 

ozone safe/ozone friendly claims. For 

each of these claims, the Green Guides 

explain how reasonable consumers are 

likely to interpret them. The Guides also 

describe the basic elements necessary to 

substantiate claims and present options 

for qualifying specific claims to avoid 

deception.3 The illustrative 

qualifications provide ‘‘safe harbors’’ for 

marketers who want certainty about 

how to make environmental claims, but 

do not represent the only permissible 

approaches to qualifying a claim. 

II. Regulatory Review of the Green 

Guides 

The Commission reviews all of its 

rules and guides periodically to 

examine their efficacy, costs, and 

benefits, and to determine whether to 

retain, modify, or rescind them. On 

November 26, 2007, the FTC 

commenced its review of the Green 

Guides and sought public comment.4 As 

part of this comprehensive review, the 

FTC also announced a series of public 

workshops to explore emerging 

environmental marketing issues and, 

through subsequent notices, opened 

public comment periods in connection 

with each workshop.5 The Commission 

sought comment on a number of issues, 

including the continuing need for and 

economic impact of the Guides, the 

effect of the Guides on the accuracy of 

environmental claims, and whether the 

Guides should illustrate certain 

environmental claims—such as carbon 

neutrality, sustainability, and 

renewability—not currently addressed 

in the Guides. The Commission also 

sought specific consumer survey 

evidence and consumer perception data 

addressing environmental claims. Few 

commenters submitted consumer survey 

evidence or consumer perception data. 

The Commission, therefore, is 

considering conducting its own 

consumer study related to consumer 

perception of environmental marketing 

claims. This study would aid the 

Commission in determining what 

revisions, if any, it should make to the 

Guides to ensure that the Guides are 

appropriately responsive to any changes 

in consumer perception of 

environmental claims. 

III. Paperwork Reduction Act Notice 

As required by Section 3506(c)(2)(A) 

of the PRA, 44 U.S.C. 3501-21, the FTC 

is providing this opportunity for public 

comment before requesting that OMB 

approve the study. Under the PRA, 

federal agencies must obtain OMB 

approval for each collection of 

information they conduct or sponsor. 

‘‘Collection of information’’ means 

agency requests or requirements that 

members of the public submit reports, 

keep records, or provide information to 

a third party. 44 U.S.C. 3502(3); 5 CFR 

1320.3(c). 

Specifically, the FTC invites 

comments on: (1) whether the proposed 

collection of information is necessary 


jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES
60704 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 199 / Tuesday, October 14, 2008 / Notices 

for the proper performance of the 

functions of the FTC, including whether 

the information will have practical 

utility; (2) the accuracy of the FTC’s 

estimate of the burden of the proposed 

collection of information; (3) ways to 

enhance the quality, utility, and clarity 

of the information to be collected; and 

(4) ways to minimize the burden of 

collecting information on those who are 

to respond, including through the use of 

appropriate automated, electronic, 

mechanical, or other technological 

collection techniques or other forms of 

information technology, e.g., permitting 

electronic submission of responses. All 

comments should be filed as prescribed 

in the ADDRESSES section above, and 

must be received on or before December 

15, 2008. 

IV. FTC’s Proposed Study of Consumer 

Perception 

The FTC proposes to collect 

information from up to 7,000 consumers 

in order to gather data on consumer 

perception of environmental marketing 

claims. All information will be collected 

on a voluntary basis. The FTC plans to 

contract with a consumer research firm 

to identify consumers and conduct the 

study via the Internet. Among other 

things, the research firm will be 

expected to study a stratified sample of 

the adult United States population 

broadly representative of consumer 

group characteristics (e.g., geographic 

location, housing characteristics, 

gender, age, education, and race/ 

ethnicity), relative to the most recent 

Census Bureau Current Population 

Survey. 

The FTC expects that selected 

respondents will be asked questions 

about a number of express or implied 

environmental marketing claim 

concepts, such as ‘‘renewable’’ and 

‘‘sustainable.’’ Each concept may be 

featured in a separate module of 

questions. Such questions may explore 

perceptions about the unqualified 

general concept and variations on the 

concept. The results will assist the FTC 

in its review of the Green Guides by 

helping to ensure that the Green Guides 

are consistent with consumer 

perception of environmental marketing 

claims. 

The FTC is considering pre-testing the 

consumer questionnaires on 

approximately 100 respondents to 

ensure that all questions are easily 

understood. The FTC expects that the 

pre-test would take approximately 25 

minutes on average per person, 

approximately 42 hours total (100 

respondents x 25 minutes each). Once 

the pretest is completed, the FTC plans 

to seek information from up to 7,000 

respondents for approximately 25 

minutes each. Thus, answering the 

FTC’s information requests will require 

up to 2,917 hours total (7,000 

respondents x 25 minutes each). 

Accordingly, cumulative total burden 

hours for the survey will be 

approximately 3,000 hours. 

The cost per respondent should be 

negligible. Participation is voluntary 

and will not require start-up, capital, or 

labor expenditures by respondents. 

By direction of the Commission. 

Donald S. Clark, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. E8–24339 Filed 10–10–08: 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6750–01–S 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

[Document Identifier: OS–0990–New; 30-day 

notice] 

Agency Information Collection 

Request. 30-Day Public Comment 

Request 

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HHS. 

In compliance with the requirement 

of section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 

Office of the Secretary (OS), Department 

of Health and Human Services, is 

publishing the following summary of a 

proposed collection for public 

comment. Interested persons are invited 

to send comments regarding this burden 

estimate or any other aspect of this 

collection of information, including any 

of the following subjects: (1) The 

necessity and utility of the proposed 

information collection for the proper 

performance of the agency’s functions; 

(2) the accuracy of the estimated 

burden; (3) ways to enhance the quality, 

utility, and clarity of the information to 

be collected; and (4) the use of 

automated collection techniques or 

other forms of information technology to 

minimize the information collection 

burden. 

To obtain copies of the supporting 

statement and any related forms for the 

proposed paperwork collections 

referenced above, e-mail your request, 

including your address, phone number, 

OMB number, and OS document 

identifier, to 

Sherette.funncoleman@hhs.gov, or call 

the Reports Clearance Office on (202) 

690–5683. Send written comments and 

recommendations for the proposed 

information collections within 30 days 

of this notice directly to the OS OMB 

Desk Officer; faxed to OMB at 202–395– 

6974. 

Proposed Project: Evaluating 

Institutions Research Misconduct 

Education Efforts—OMB No. 0990– 

NEW–Office of Research Integrity. 

Abstract: The Office of Research 

Integrity (ORI) is conducting this study 

of Research Misconduct Education in 

medical schools because these 

institutions are responsible for 

dissemination of information and 

guidelines to their faculty, staff, and 

students concerning the U.S. Public 

Health Service (PHS) Policies on 

Research Misconduct (42 CFR Part 93). 

The ORI review of institutional research 

misconduct policies, investigation 

reports, requests for technical assistance 

in handling allegations, and analyses of 

filings of the Annual Report on Possible 

Research Misconduct (PHS 6349) have 

raised questions about the level of 

knowledge of medical school faculty 

conducting research and responding to 

allegations, and the faculty’s perception 

of their institution’s commitment to 

dealing with research misconduct. This 

study is designed to evaluate the 

knowledge of medical school faculty 

members about their institution’s 

policies and procedures and identify 

best practices and approaches used by 

medical institutions to produce the most 

positive perceptions of commitment and 

the best understanding of research 

misconduct. Also, the study will 

identify the areas of responsibility and 

specify the activities that institutions 

perform in the process of educating 

their employees to the meaning of 

scientific misconduct at their 

institutions. 

This will involve a one-time data 

collection effort. These researchers have 

been identified from a list of medical 

school principal investigators (PIs) that 

we obtained from the National Institutes 

of Health (NIH). All received NIH 

research projects awards in 2005 or 

2006. 


jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES