Document ID: EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0563-0002
Agency: epa
Document Type: Supporting & Related Material
Title: 
Posted Date: 2007-09-28T04:00Z

PART A OF THE SUPPORTING STATEMENT

1.	Identification of the Information Collection

(a)	Title and Number of Information Collection.

	"National Volatile Organic Compound Emission Standards for Consumer
Products."  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tracking number
for this information collection request (ICR) is 1764.04.  This is a
renewal of a continuing ICR, OMB No. 2060-0348, expiration date October
31, 2007.

(b)	Short Characterization.

	(i)	Type of collection.  

	The information collection includes initial reports and periodic
recordkeeping necessary for the EPA to ensure compliance with the
federal standards for consumer products.  Respondents are manufacturers
and importers of consumer products.

	The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved the previous ICR
1764.03 without terms of clearance.

	(ii)	Content of reports.  

	All manufacturers and importers of consumer products subject to this
rule must submit an initial report by the compliance date of the rule. 
The "Initial Notification Report" must include (1) company name; (2)
list of affected product categories; (3) location of corporate
headquarters; (4) location where formulation and batch records are
maintained; (5) description of any date codes used on product labeling;
and (6) name, title, and signature of the certifying company official. 

	Respondents have no periodic reporting requirements.  Another reporting
requirement, in addition to the initial report, is to provide an updated
description of any date codes that may have been revised subsequent to
submittal of the initial report. 

	Respondents seeking a variance must submit an application which
provides information to EPA necessary in determining whether to grant
the variance.  The application would include the specific grounds on
which the variance is sought, proposed date by which the requirements of
the rule will be met, and a plan for achieving compliance. 

	Supporting documentation is required of companies who wish to market a
product subject to the "innovative products" provisions of the rule. 
This documentation includes information on VOC emissions from the use of
the product as compared to emissions from a product formulated in
compliance with the table of standards.

	The rule requires that the labels of all subject consumer products
display the date of manufacture.  However, there should be no additional
burden imposed due to this labeling requirement because manufacturers
routinely date-code their products.  The date can be in coded form.  All
manufacturers and importers of subject products must submit an
explanation of all date codes used.  Date code explanations must be
submitted with the initial report.  Thereafter, respondents must submit
explanations of any new date code within 30 days of its first use.

	(iii)	Recordkeeping requirements.  

	All manufacturers and importers of subject consumer products are
required to maintain records of formulations and actual batch records
for all consumer products covered by the rule.  If requested by EPA, the
manufacturer or importer must demonstrate to EPA's satisfaction that
actual product content adheres to the formulation(s) on record. 

	All information is routinely kept by companies and consists of
formulation data and information on ingredients used in each batch. 
There is no testing required to create this data, except for one-time
emission testing of charcoal lighter materials formulations.

	

	All records required under the rule must be retained for 3 years.

2.	Need for and Use of the Collection

(a)	Need/Authority for the Collection.  

	The EPA is required under Section 183(e) of the Clean Air Act (Act) to
regulate VOC emissions from the use of consumer and commercial products.
 Pursuant to Section 183(e)(3), the EPA published a list of consumer and
commercial products and a schedule for their regulation on March 23,
1995 (60 FR 15264).  Consumer products were included in Group I of the
list, and standards were promulgated on September 11, 1998.  In the
Administrator's judgment, VOC emissions from the use of consumer
products contribute to ground-level ozone formation in ozone
nonattainment areas.

	The reports and recordkeeping activities required under the rule enable
the EPA to determine whether or not consumer products manufactured or
imported for use in the U.S. meet the VOC content limits.  Minimal
reporting is required.  Initial reporting consists of information needed
by EPA to (1) identify the universe of manufacturers and importers
subject to the rule; (2) determine the date of manufacture of products;
(3) ascertain the location of formulation and batch records for purposes
of compliance assurance; and (4) have on record a responsible company
official as a primary contact.  Notification that a regulated entity has
revised its date code system will enable EPA to have access to the most
current codes.  

	Respondents seeking a variance are required to submit an application
which includes the grounds upon which the variance is being sought, the
proposed date for coming into compliance, and a plan for achieving
compliance.   

	Companies desiring to market a product under the "innovative products"
provisions are required to submit documentation of the VOC emissions
from the use of the product as compared to emissions from a product
formulated in compliance with the table of standards.

 

	Recordkeeping, consisting of maintenance of formulation data and batch
records, enable EPA to determine whether a product offered for sale was,
in fact, manufactured with VOC content in compliance with the limits. 
There is no required testing except for one-time emission testing of
charcoal lighter fluid formulations.

(b)	Use/Users of the Information.  

	Agency enforcement personnel will use the information collected to (1)
identify manufacturers and importers subject to the rule; and (2) ensure
that consumer products comply with the VOC content standards.  These
activities are essential to compliance assurance.

3.	Nonduplication, Consultations, and Other Collection Criteria

(a)	Nonduplication.

	The information collected pursuant to the regulation consists primarily
of the VOC content for specific categories of consumer products. 
Several States regulate consumer products and require certain
recordkeeping and reporting activities.  The rule includes requirements
consistent with State rules to the extent practical in order to minimize
the cumulative burden to the industry.

	Public Notice Required Prior to ICR Submission to OMB

	On August 2, 2007, EPA published a notice in the Federal Register (72
FR 42409) entitled, Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed
Collection; Comment Request; National Volatile Organic Compound Emission
Standards for Consumer Products; EPA ICR No. 1764.01; OMB Control No.
2060-0348.  The purpose of the notice was to announce that EPA was
planning to submit this continuing ICR to OMB for review and approval,
and to solicit comments on the proposed continued collection. 
[Placeholder for comments received during the comment period and summary
of any such comments]

(c)	Consultations

	Significant input and information was received from the affected
industry, State and local governments, and environmental groups during
development of the rule.  In addition, in preparing to submit this ICR
to OMB for renewal, EPA contacted parties within the affected industry
to obtain information on the universe of affected sources and feedback
on accuracy of the burden estimates.

 TABLE 1

CONSULTATIONS

	Douglas Fratz		Consumer Specialty Products Association

	Frances Wu		The Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association

	Douglas Raymond	National Aerosol Association 

	Mark Collatz		The Adhesive and Sealant Council

	F. H. Brewer		S.C. Johnson & Son

	Eileen Moyer		Reckitt-Benckiser

(d)	Effects of Less Frequent Collection.

	This ICR includes one-time initial reports by all manufacturers and
importers of subject consumer products.  Periodic reporting is not
required.  Consequently, less frequent reporting is not an issue.

	Formulation and batch records are required to be kept on a per-product
basis.  This information is normally maintained by consumer product
manufacturers.  Because there is no analytical test method for
determining the VOC content of consumer products, maintaining records of
each batch is essential for compliance assurance.  Accordingly, lesser
degrees of recordkeeping would make compliance determination difficult
if not impossible.

(e)	General Guidelines.

	This ICR adheres to the guidelines for Federal data requesters, as
provided at 5 CFR 1320.6.  The regulation requires that records be
maintained for 3 years.  This period of record retention is consistent
with other ongoing similar programs and allows enough record history for
inspectors to adequately monitor compliance.  

(f)	Confidentiality.

	(i)	Confidentiality.  

	All information submitted to the Agency for which a claim of
confidentiality is made will be safeguarded according to the Agency
policies set forth in Title 40, Chapter 1, Part 2, Subpart
B--Confidentiality of Business Information (see 40 CFR 2; 41 FR 36092,
September 1, 1976; amended by 43 FR 39999, September 8, 1978; 43 FR
42251, September 28, 1978; 44 FR 17674, March 23, 1979).

	(ii)	Sensitive Questions.  

	This section is not applicable because this ICR does not involve
matters of a sensitive nature.

4.	The Respondents and the Information Requested

(a)	Respondents/SIC and NAICS Codes.  

	Respondents to this information collection are manufacturers and
importers of consumer products.  Manufacturers of consumer products fall
within standard industrial classification (SIC) 284, including "Soap,
Detergents, Cleaning Preparations" and "Perfumes, Cosmetics, and Other
Toilet Preparations;" SIC 287, "Agricultural Chemicals;" and SIC 289,
"Miscellaneous Chemical Products."   The appropriate North American
Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes are 3256, “Soap,
Cleaning Compounds, and Toilet Preparations;” and 3259, “Other
Chemical Products and Preparations.” 

(b)	Information Requested.

	(i)	Data items.  

	Table 2, Source Data and Information Requirements, summarizes the
recordkeeping and reporting requirements.

TABLE 2

SOURCE DATA AND INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS

Recordkeeping	

Records of formulations in use	59.209(a)

Records of composition of each batch of production 	59.209(a)

Records of charcoal lighter materials testing	59.209(c)

Reporting	

Initial report	59.209(d)

Report of change of date coding system	59.209(e)

Application for variance	59.206(a)

Documentation of "innovative products"	59.204(d)



	(ii)	Respondent Activities.  

	The respondent activities required for all manufacturers and importers
of regulated products are listed in Table 3. 

5.	The Information Collected--Agency Activities, Collection Methodology,
and Information Management.

(a)	Agency Activities.

	A list of activities required of the EPA is provided in Table 4.  

(b)	Collection Methodology and Management

	The information collected under this rule will be maintained in a
computerized database.  As noted in section 2(b) of this ICR, the
information collected is a necessary part of compliance determination.

(c)	Small Entity Flexibility.

	Under the rule, there are no specific provisions for small entity
flexibility.  However, companies subject to the rule can apply for
variances in cases where the company, because of extraordinary reasons
beyond reasonable control, cannot comply with the rule.  While all
variance applications will receive close scrutiny, EPA will give full
consideration to the special needs of small manufacturers and importers.

(d)	Collection Schedule.

	By December 10, 1998 [December 10, 1999 for consumer products that are
also regulated under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide
Act (FIFRA)], or within 30 days of becoming subject to the rule,
manufacturers and importers of regulated products must submit to EPA an
Initial Notification Report.  The content of this report is outlined in
section 1(b)(ii) of this ICR.  

6.	Estimating the Burden and Cost of the Collection

	Because this is a renewal of an existing ICR, these estimates represent
the average annual burden that will be incurred by the affected industry
during the 3-year period beginning in November 2007.  Consequently, the
requirement for each regulated entity to submit an initial notification
report during the first year the rule was effective will have already
been met and is not considered here. 

(a)	Estimating Respondent Burden.

	The average annual burden estimates for reporting and recordkeeping
requirements for all manufacturers and importers of subject products are
presented in Table 3.  These numbers were derived from estimates based
on the EPA's experience with other standards, and from information
obtained from the industry representatives listed in Table 1.  These
estimates represent the average annual burden that will be incurred by
the affected industry for the 3 years beginning in November 2007.  The
following assumptions were used to estimate the respondent burden:

Only incremental burden imposed by this rule was considered. 
Recordkeeping activities already performed by sources regardless of the
existence of this rule are not included in the burden calculation.

The burden of planning for recordkeeping will be 2 hours per year.

The burden of maintaining batch records will be 8 hours per month.

The burden of maintaining records of charcoal lighter material test
results will be 1 hour per year

(b)	Estimating Respondent Costs.

Table 3 also presents estimated costs for the required recordkeeping
and reporting activities.  Industry labor rates are based on an average
of occupational wage rates for the affected NAICS groupings 3256 and
3259.  Management wages were based on industrial production managers,
technical wages were based on health and safety engineers, and clerical
rates were based on production, planning, and expediting clerks.  The
resultant average wage rates were:  management ($41.50); technical
($32.06); and clerical ($19.76).  To estimate the actual labor costs to
be used in Table 3, an overhead of 100 percent was added to the raw
labor rates resulting in the following loaded labor rates:  management
($83); technical ($64); and clerical ($39).  There are no capital costs
associated with the rule.

(c)	Estimating Agency Burden and Cost.

	Because the information collection requirements were estimated as an
incidental part of the standard development, no costs can be attributed
to the development of the information collection requirements.  Because
reporting and recordkeeping requirements on the part of respondents are
required under section 183(e) of the Act, no operational costs will be
incurred by the Federal government.  Examination of records to be
maintained by the respondents will occur incidentally as a part of the
periodic inspection of sources that is part of the EPA's overall
compliance and enforcement program and is not attributable to this ICR. 
The only costs that the Federal government will incur are costs
associated with the review of reported information, as presented in
Table 4.  

	Labor rates and associated costs are based on Office of Personnel
Management Salary Table 2007-RUS.  Salary rates from this table were: 
management (GS15 - $50); technical (GS13 - $36); and clerical (GS7 -
$17).  Overhead of 100 per cent was added, resulting in the following
loaded labor rates:  management ($100); technical ($72); and clerical
($34).  The number of management hours is assumed to equal 5 percent of
the number of technical hours; the number of clerical hours is assumed
to equal 1 percent of the number of technical hours (see Table 4).

	Estimating the Respondent Universe and Total Burden and Costs 

The following assumptions were used to estimate the respondent universe
and total burden and costs for industry to comply with the various
requirements of the rule:  

Total number of affected sources is 3000

Total number of respondents will be 732

Number of respondents performing “new” recordkeeping will be 10
percent, or about 300 per year

Number of “new” respondents submitting the one-time Initial
Notification Report will be 1 percent of the total affected sources, or
about 30 per year

Number of respondents submitting variance applications will be 5

Number of respondents submitting innovative products applications will
be 2

(e)	Bottom Line Burden Hours and Cost Tables.

	(i)	Respondent Tally  

	The bottom line respondent burden hours and cost, presented in Table 3,
are calculated by summing the person-hours column and by summing the
cost column.  The annual burden and cost averaged over the 3 years
beginning in November 2007 are 29,613 hours and $1,187,537.   The
average burden equals the total burden (29,613 hours) divided by the
number of respondents (732 respondents), or about 40 hours per
respondent.

	(ii)	Agency Tally  

	The bottom line Agency burden and cost are presented in Table 4.  The
number of management hours is assumed to equal 5 percent of the number
of technical hours; the number of clerical hours is assumed to equal 1
percent of the number of technical hours. Agency cost for each activity
is calculated by summing the technical, management, and clerical costs
for each burden item.  The estimated annual burden and cost averaged
over the 3 years beginning in November 2007 are 123 hours and $7,951.

	(iii)	Variations in the annual bottom line.  

	The EPA does not anticipate any significant annual variations in the
bottom line after the first year the rule is in effect.



TABLE 3

INDUSTRY BURDEN FOR THE CONSUMER PRODUCTS RULE

Burden Item	(A)

Person

Hours

per Occurrence	(B)

Number of Occurrences per Respondent

per Year	(C)

Person Hours per Respondent per Year 

(C=A*B)	

Dollars

per

Hour	(D)

Respondents

per

Year	(E)

Total Hours

 per Year

(E=C*D)	

Total Cost

per Year

($)

Reporting

	Read instructions	2	1	2	83	30	60	4980

Gather information	1	1	1	64	30	30	1920

Initial report	1	1	1	39	30	30	1770

Update date code	1	1	1	39	30	30	1770

Variance application	2	1	2	83	5	10	830

Innovative products appl 	24	1	24	64	2	48	3072

Recordkeeping

	Read instructions	(above)

Plan activities	2	1	2	83	300	600	49,800

Implementation	8	12	96	39	300	28,800	1,123,200

Charcoal lighter results	1	1	1	39	5	5	195

Total Industry Burden

	

732	

29,613	

$ 1,187,537

TABLE 4

AGENCY BURDEN FOR THE CONSUMER PRODUCTS RULE

Burden Item	(A)

Person

Hours

per Occurrence	(B)

Occurrences

per Year	(C)

Technical

Person Hours 

@ $64/hr

 

(C=A*B)	(D)

Management

 Person Hours

@ $83/hr

(D=C*0.05)	(E)

Clerical 

Person Hours

@ $39/hr

(E=C*0.01	(F)

Total

Hours

 per Year

(F=C+D+E)	

Total Cost

per Year

($)

Reporting

	Initial report	1	30	30	1.5	0.3	31.8	2056

Update date code	1	30	30	1.5	0.3	31.8	2056

Variance application	8	5	40	2.0	0.4	42.4	2742

Innovative products appl 	8	2	16	0.8	0.16	16.96	1097

Total Agency Burden

67	

116	

5.8	

1.16	

123	

$ 7951

 (f)     Reasons for Change in Burden.  

	This renewal of a continuing ICR includes the following one-time burden
and cost items:  reading the rule, the initial report, the explanation
of date codes, planning activities, and modifying product labels.  To
develop the estimates of annual average burden, these one-time
activities were averaged over 3 years, beginning after the rule has been
effective for over a year.  Therefore, the EPA assumes that the vast
majority of one-time Initial Notification Reports already will have been
submitted by October 2007.  Consequently, only “new” notifications
will be submitted during the period covered by this ICR renewal.  The
assumptions used as a basis for the burden calculations more fully
explain this concept.  In addition, EPA’s experience since the
effective date of the rule indicates that the anticipated number of
variances and innovative product exemptions sought will be lower than
originally estimated. 

(g)    Burden Statement

	The annual public reporting and recordkeeping burden for this
collection of information is estimated to average 40 hours per
respondent.  Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources
expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or disclose or
provide information to or for a Federal agency.  This includes the time
needed to review instructions; develop, acquire, install, and utilize
technology and systems for the purposes of collecting, validating, and
verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and
disclosing and providing information; adjust the existing ways to comply
with any previously applicable instructions and requirements; train
personnel to be able to respond to a collection of information; search
data sources; complete and review the collection of information; and
transmit or otherwise disclose the information.  An agency may not
conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a
collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB
control number.  The OMB control numbers for EPA's regulations are
listed in 40 CFR part 9 and 48 CFR chapter 15.  

	To comment on the Agency’s need for this information, the accuracy of
the provided burden estimates, and any suggested methods for minimizing
respondent burden, including the use of automated collection techniques,
EPA has established a docket for this ICR under Docket ID No.
EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0563, which is available for online viewing at
www.regulations.gov, or in hard copy at EPA Docket, EPA/DC, EPA West,
Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC. The EPA/DC Public
Reading Room is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday,
excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Reading Room is
202-566-1744, and the telephone number for the Air and Radiation Docket
Center is 202-566-1742.

An electronic version of the public docket is available at
www.regulations.gov. This site can be used to submit or view public
comments, access the index listing of the contents of the public docket,
and to access those documents in the public docket that are available
electronically. When in the system, select “search,” then key in the
Docket ID Number identified above. Also, you can send comments to the
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and
Budget, 725 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20503, Attention: Desk
Office for EPA. Please include the EPA Docket ID No.
EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0563 in any correspondence.

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