Supporting Statement

for

Marine Occupational Health and Safety Standards

for Benzene – 46 CFR 197 Subpart C

OMB No.:  1625-0063

COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS:  Instruction

A.  Justification  

1.  Circumstances that make the collection necessary.  

Benzene is a highly dangerous chemical that is commonly carried by ship
and or barge in bulk, both by itself and in hydrocarbon mixtures. 
Benzene has long been known for its short-term health effects, and its
cancer-causing nature was suspected for many years.  Since exposure to
even low concentrations of Benzene vapor is dangerous, the Coast Guard
issued rules to help to reduce the levels to which marine workers are
exposed.  Title 46 USC 3703 and 49 CFR 1.46 authorize the Coast Guard to
issue regulations dealing with handling and storage of cargo and the
protection of life and property in the marine area.  

Title 46 CFR 197 subpart C requires certain companies to perform Benzene
testing and monitoring.  This includes testing all U.S.-flag Coast Guard
inspected vessels for the Benzene vapor concentration while carrying or
transferring any cargo containing 0.5% or more Benzene by volume.  Also,
this involves providing medical surveillance, training, and other
protective measures for those employees exposed to Benzene vapor in
excess of the action level of 0.5 parts per million (ppm).  Vessel
operators must gather and keep records that are subject to Coast Guard
inspection.  Records are required for all vessels carrying bulk liquid
cargoes that have Benzene concentration of 0.5% or more.  Recordkeeping
topics include—

Exposure monitoring – determination of personal exposure

Program to reduce personal exposure

Respiratory protection – fit testing

Medical surveillance – medical records

Provision of a Benzene Materials Safety Data Sheet

Since it is not practical for Coast Guard personnel to monitor each
company’s compliance with these requirements, the regulations require
each company to keep records showing that they meet each requirement. 
Periodically, Coast Guard personnel review these records to determine
compliance.  These companies will not send records to the Coast Guard.

This information collection supports the following strategic goals:

Department of Homeland Security

Prevention

Protection

Coast Guard

Safety

Protection of Natural Resources

Prevention Policy & Response Policy Directorates (CG-5P & CG-5R)

Reduce crewmember deaths and injuries on U.S. commercial vessels

2.  Purpose of the Information Collection.

The regulations require each vessel owner, charterer, managing operator,
or agent (referred to as “company”) to collect information on
Benzene vapor concentrations, on the health of its employees, and on the
effectiveness of its exposure reduction programs.  This information will
not be routinely transmitted to the Coast Guard, but will be available
for inspection by Coast Guard personnel, who will then be able to
determine whether there is effective compliance with the regulations. 
Additionally, operators will inform those personnel whose exposures
exceed allowable limits.  Operators will give personnel copies of their
health records and provide them with safety and health data so that they
are aware of the potential hazards in the workplace.

The purpose of these information collection requirements is to ensure
compliance with the Benzene regulations.  If this information is not
collected, there will be no way for the Coast Guard to determine whether
the company is complying with the requirements.  Also, personnel will
not have the information required for informed consent, and the company
will not be able to effectively carry out their Benzene
reduction/control program.  Since the Coast Guard inspects each vessel
at least annually, the records review is at least annually. 
Additionally, if the Coast Guard has reason to believe that a company is
in violation of the rules, the Coast Guard will review the facility
records.

To date, the Coast Guard has used the information collected to determine
compliance with the Benzene regulations.  

3.  Consideration of information technology to reduce burden.

We have made the burden as small as possible.  The required information
is the minimum necessary for determining Benzene exposure levels,
planning for reducing human exposure to within safe limits, ensuring
effectiveness of respirators, monitoring personnel health, and providing
health and safety information to personnel.  For example—The fit test
report ensures that the fit test was performed successfully, and Coast
Guard personnel ask for the report to check that the test was performed
successfully.  In general, these information requirements are similar to
those that companies already voluntarily use to implement these safety
and health measures.  Without records of these measures, neither the
companies nor the Coast Guard can be certain that the regulations are
being carried out.  Furthermore, without such requirements, personnel
would not know if their health is at risk and would not have the safety
and health information available they need for informed consent.

Since companies do not transfer information to the Coast Guard, the form
of information collection is each company’s responsibility.  Records
may be maintained in paper or electronic format.  Each company
determines what type of recordkeeping is best for that company.  We
estimate that 100 percent of the recordkeeping requirements can be done
electronically.  At this time, we estimate that 60 percent of the
responses are collected electronically.

4.  Efforts to identify duplication.

Among its many responsibilities, the Coast Guard is charged with
ensuring the health and safety of marine workers aboard inspected
vessels, and is the only Federal agency charged with this
responsibility, so the Coast Guard’s recordkeeping requirements do not
duplicate those of any other Federal agency.  Some companies already
perform many of the proposed safety and health measures, and most of
these prepare written records as any Benzene exposure reduction program
requires extensive recordkeeping.  To the extent that these company
records exist, they will satisfy the Benzene recordkeeping requirement. 
Since the Coast Guard does not specify the form of the required
recordkeeping, any records a company maintains containing the required
information will satisfy the Coast Guard’s requirements.  In effect,
due to the way the regulations are drafted, information collection
duplication is impossible.

5.  Methods used to minimize burden to small business if involved.

The information requirements are the minimum necessary to ensure a
healthy marine environment.  To a great extent, without these
recordkeeping measures, the company would find it difficult or even
impossible to implement a Benzene reduction program.  The Coast Guard
periodically reviews these requirements to be certain that they are
neither insufficient nor excessive.

The Coast Guard has minimized the burden on small as well as large
entities by the following:

	a.  Keeping the required recordkeeping to the absolute minimum to
ensure compliance;

	b.  Not requiring record submission to the Coast Guard; and

	c.  Not specifying the form or format of the recordkeeping.

6.  Consequences to Federal program if the collection were not conducted
or conducted less frequently.

With less frequent data collection, the program will not accomplish its
goal of protecting health.  Through our work with industry, other
agencies, and our trial implementation of the rules, we determined that
it is not possible to collect the required information less frequently
and still determine whether companies are in compliance with the
regulations; without the ability to determine compliance, the Coast
Guard will not be able to protect the safety and health of marine
terminal and vessel personnel.  In particular, the recordkeeping
intervals are tied to the testing intervals, so reducing the collection
frequency will prevent personnel from determining whether a company is
in compliance with the requirements.  We will periodically review these
requirements to be certain that the information collection requirements
are neither insufficient nor excessive.

Clearly, without information collection the Coast Guard will not be able
to determine compliance at all.  Furthermore, companies need to keep
records to efficiently operate their Benzene exposure reduction
programs.

7.  Special circumstances that require collection to be conducted in an
inconsistent manner.

This information collection is conducted in manner consistent with the
guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).  

8.  Consultation.

A 60-day Notice will be published in the Federal Register to obtain
public comment on this collection.  

9.  Provide any payment or gift to respondents.

There is no offer of monetary or material value for this information
collection.  

10.  Assurances of confidentiality provided to respondents.

There are no assurances of confidentiality provided to the respondents
for this information collection.

11.  Additional justification for questions of a sensitive nature.

There are no questions of sensitive language.

12.  Estimated hour and cost burden.

The estimated number of respondents is 200.

The estimated number of annual responses is 28,017.

The estimated annual hour burden is 38,165 hours.

The estimated annual cost burden is $2,608,855. 

The hour burden and costs to industry are based in part on experience
from trial implementation of the SouthWest Research chemical exposure
program.

Estimated hour burden

	a.  Initial exposure monitoring:  Each company must determine whether
the Benzene exposure level is sufficiently high to require
reduction/control measures for each Coast Guard inspected vessel
involved in the carriage of Benzene or Benzene-containing bulk cargoes. 
This assessment must be performed initially and whenever there is a
major change in vessel design or operation.  We estimate that—

an assessment will be valid for ten years.  Companies will not have to
assess exposures on each vessel, but rather will assess typical ones
they use.  

200 companies will have to perform the assessment, and 

each assessment will require three weeks (120 hours) for an industrial
hygienist to perform.  This assessment includes time for industrial
hygienists to purchase, test, and calibrate equipment; time to
familiarize themselves with the marine environment, equipment, and
operations; time to take a statistically valid series of Benzene-vapor
concentration measurements and analyze the measurements; and time to
prepare the report.  

an industrial hygienist wage rate is equivalent to a GS-13
(out-of-gov’t rate) .  

For the estimated annual hour and cost burden, see Appendix A.  

	b.  Periodic exposure monitoring:  After the initial assessment, each
company must monitor Benzene exposures annually on each vessel where
initial exposure monitoring has indicated exposure above limits.  The
initial exposure monitoring determines whether there is danger from
Benzene vapors.  Industry uses this data, if above the PEL’s, to
formulate their personal exposure reduction plan.  The periodic exposure
monitoring is necessary to determine if there have been any changes in
the worker exposure over time.  If so, the personal exposure reduction
plan may have to be changed to reflect the change in personal exposure. 
An exposure greater than the PEL’s Benzene triggers the preparation of
a personal exposure reduction plan.  We estimate that 100 companies will
initially find vapor concentrations to be above allowable limits, and
that an industrial hygienist will require one week (40 hours) to perform
each annual assessment and prepare a short report.  This time estimate
is based on the fact that the industrial hygienist will be familiar with
the marine environment and with the Benzene-measurement equipment. 
Furthermore, the company will need to take only a limited number of
measurements rather than the large number needed for the initial
assessment.  The industrial hygienist wage rate is equivalent to a GS-13
(out-of-gov’t rate).

	

For the estimated annual hour and cost burden, see Appendix A.  

	c.  Additional exposure monitoring:  After the initial assessment, each
company must evaluate the personnel exposures to Benzene whenever there
is a change in vessel operations, to determine whether the exposure has
increased or decreased.  This covers non-major changes such as changes
in the cargo transfer rate or use of different barges, as opposed to the
major changes that require entirely new initial assessments (see item
a), such as installation of a vapor recovery system.  We estimate that
on average 20 companies will change their operations each year and will
have to monitor their exposures and prepare a short report.  We further
estimate that an industrial hygienist will require one week (40 hours)
to perform each assessment.  This time estimate is based on the fact
that the company will need to take only a limited number of measurements
rather than the large number needed for the initial assessment.  The
industrial hygienist wage rate is equivalent to a GS-13 (out-of-gov’t
rate).

For the estimated annual hour and cost burden, see Appendix A.  

	d.  Notification of exposure monitoring:  After the initial assessment,
each company for which the initial exposure monitoring showed above
limit exposures must notify affected personnel annually.  Notification
is required for all Benzene monitoring.  If the PEL are exceeded, the
notification must contain a description of the measures taken to protect
the worker.  We estimate that 100 companies will initially find
Benzene-vapor exposures above the PELs and so must notify their
employees.  We estimate that for each company, an industrial hygienist
will require one hour to prepare a written notification (the same
notification to each employee) to all of that company’s affected
workers, and clerical workers will require three hours to prepare, copy,
and distribute the written notifications.  The industrial hygienist wage
rate is equivalent to a GS-13 (out-of-gov’t rate) and the clerical
time wage rate is equivalent to GS-05 (Out Gov’t).

	

For the estimated annual hour and cost burden, see Appendix A.  

	e.  Written exposure reduction programs:  After the initial assessment,
each company for which the initial exposure monitoring showed
Benzene-vapor exposures above the PELs must prepare a written program to
reduce/control exposures.  We estimate that 100 companies will initially
find exposures above the PELs and will need to prepare a program, and
that on average each program will be valid for five years.  This program
should be only a few pages in length.  We estimate that for each
company, an industrial hygienist will require one week (40 hours) to
prepare a written program, and clerical workers will require two hours
to type up the program.  The industrial hygienist wage rate is
equivalent to GS-13 (Out Gov’t) and the clerical time wage rate is
equivalent to GS-05 (Out Gov’t).

For the estimated annual hour and cost burden, see Appendix A.  

	f.  Written respiratory protection programs:  In addition to the
written exposure reduction program (see item e), most companies will
choose to reduce personnel exposures by requiring respiratory protection
be worn.  Those companies that choose this option will be required to
prepare a written program.  Of the estimated 100 companies with above
limit exposures, we estimate that 90 will prepare a respiratory
protection program, and that on average each program will be valid for
five years.  This program should be only a few pages in length, and
should vary little from company to company.  We estimate that for each
company, an industrial hygienist will require 24 hours to prepare a
written program, and clerical workers will take two hours to type up the
program.   The industrial hygienist wage rate is equivalent to GS-13
(Out Gov’t) and the clerical time wage rate is equivalent to GS-05
(Out Gov’t).

	

For the estimated annual hour and cost burden, see Appendix A.  

	g.  Fit to wear respirator:  Prior to issuing a respirator to an
employee, each company must have a physician determine that the employee
can safely wear a respirator.  This determination will probably be made
during the employee’s first (baseline) annual medical monitoring, and
should require thirty minutes of the physician’s time and thirty
minutes (0.5 hour) of the employee’s time.  We estimate that on
average an employee will work for the same company for about five years,
meaning that about 20 percent must be undergo the respiratory fit test
each year.  The physician wage rate is equivalent to O-4 (Out Gov’t)
and the employee time age rate is equivalent to GS-03 (Out Gov’t).

	

For the estimated annual hour and cost burden, see Appendix A.  

	h.  Respirator fit testing records:  In addition to a written
respiratory protection program, each company using negative pressure
respiration protection for compliance must test the respirator fit
annually for each employee and maintain a written record.  We estimate a
safety and health technician will require twenty minutes (0.33 hour) for
test preparation for each employee, two hours for each fit test, and
twenty minutes (0.33 hour) for each test record preparation. 
Furthermore, each employee will spend about two hours in the fit test,
with about 2,000 employees being tested annually.  The safety and health
technician wage rate is equivalent to the GS-04 (Out Gov’t) and the
employee time wage rate is equivalent to GS-03 (Out Gov’t).

For the estimated annual hour and cost burden, see Appendix A.  

	i.  Medical Monitoring:  If the initial exposure assessment
demonstrates that the Benzene-vapor level exceeds certain levels, each
company will have to provide annual medical examinations (i.e., medical
surveillance) for each exposed employee.  For example—All employees
exposed to Benzene vapor at a concentration of greater than or equal to
the Action Level ppm on at least 30 calendar days or at a level above
the PEL’s on at least 10 calendar days during the coming year.   Even
if employees wear respiratory protection, they will still need to have a
medical exam.  The medical exam determines whether the worker has been
injured despite the personal exposure reduction plan.  The medical exams
look for changes in blood and the liver that are precursors to leukemia.
 The regulations require that the all results of the medical tests be
provided to the employee.  Benzene is unusual in that the damage it does
to the blood and liver at the beginning can be found in routine medical
tests, before the onset of cancerous Leukemia.  And also unusual is the
fact that if the medical tests prove positive for these noncancerous
precursors of Leukemia, removal from further exposure to Benzene results
in the elimination of these blood and liver changes, and no onset of
leukemia.  For that reason medical tests are imperative.  Since the
medical examination level for Benzene exposure is below the
reduction/control level, we estimate 150 companies (2,500 affected
employees) will have to provide medical examinations, and must prepare
an examination report for each employee.  Each employee spends time in
the examination room, waiting room (both waiting and filling-out forms),
and blood lab.  Finally, a safety and health technician spends time
scheduling, filling-out forms, and assisting employees in filling-out
forms.  Since companies do not normally provide annual physical
examinations, the entire charge represents a new burden on the industry.
 We estimate that each physical, including physician’s time to review
the medical history, examine the employee, interpret test results, and
write the report, will require one hour. Each employee will spend about
four hours in the process, and a safety and health technician will spend
about one hour per employee tested.  Additionally, each test will
involve sending blood samples to an outside laboratory.  We estimate
that this will cost $220 per employee.  The physician wage rate is
equivalent to the O-4 (Out Gov’t), the employee time wage rate is
equivalent to the GS-03 (Out Gov’t), and the technician wage rate is
equivalent to GS-04 (Out Gov’t).

For the estimated annual hour and cost burden, see Appendix A.  

	j.  Information for physicians:  Prior to each medical examination,
each company must provide the physician with occupational exposure and
medical information for each employee.  We estimate that a safety and
health technician will spend one hour preparing data for each employee,
and that 2,500 employees will be affected.  The industrial hygienist
wage rate is equivalent to GS-13 (Out Gov’t).

For the estimated annual hour and cost burden, see Appendix A.  

	k.  Material safety data sheets:  Each company must provide personnel
with information on the hazards of the cargoes carried and the Benzene
contained in the cargo.  This must be placed on the vessel for the
crew’s use.  This information consists of data sheets prepared from
information supplied by companies producing the cargoes; alternatively,
for pure Benzene, the company can use the information provided in 46 CFR
197 Appendices A and B.  Once this information is prepared, the only
burden is selecting, duplicating, and supplying them to each tank ship
and tow boat as needed.  We estimate that a clerk will require about 15
minutes (0.25 hour) to select, copy, and locate the appropriate
information sheet on each tank ship or tow boat.  (It is not necessary
to post the data sheets on each vessel, only that they be available to
the crew).  Furthermore, we estimate that on an annual basis there are
700 vessels that carry 10 different cargoes of interest for a total of
7,000 listings each year.  The clerical wage rate is equivalent to a
GS-05 (Out Gov’t).

For the estimated annual hour and cost burden, see Appendix A.  

	l.  Employee training:  Each company must annually train all employees
that may be exposed to Benzene or Benzene-containing vapors, in the
hazards associated with Benzene and the need for safety measures and
health monitoring.  In order to document that they have trained their
workers, they must record the fact that they have done so.  We estimate
3,300 employees will be trained annually, and that recording their names
will require five minutes (0.083 hour) of a technician’s time per
employee.  The technical time wage rate is equivalent to a GS-04 (Out
Gov’t). 

For the estimated annual hour and cost burden, see Appendix A.  

Estimate of hour and cost burden--Summary:  The total average annual
hour and cost burden are presented by category in Appendix B.

13.  Annual estimate of capital and startup cost to respondents.

There are no capital, start-up or maintenance costs associated with this
information collection.

14.  Estimates of annualized cost to the Federal Government.

The annualized Federal Government cost estimate is $6,804 (see Appendix
C).  The cost is based on Coast Guard personnel review of the benzene
records during periodic inspections, random boardings, and post-casualty
investigations.  We estimate that there will be approximately 1,000
benzene record reviews per year and that a review will be conducted by a
CG Lieutenant (O-3) taking about 5 minutes (0.08333 hours) per review. 
The wage rate shown is in accordance with the current edition of
COMDTINST 7310.1(series) for “In-Government” personnel.  

15.  Reasons for change in the burden.

There is no change in burden.  

16.  Plans for tabulation, statistical analysis and publication.

This information collection will not be published for statistical
purposes.  

17.  Approval to not display the expiration date.

The Coast Guard will display the expiration date for OMB approval of
this information collection.  

18.  Explain each exception to the certification statement. 

The Coast Guard does not request an exception to the certification of
this information collection.  

B.  Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods  

This information collection does not employ statistical methods.

  Permissible exposure limits (PEL) –Time weighted average: 1 ppm; 
PEL – Short Term Exposure Limit: 5 ppm.  

  All hourly wage rates referenced in this document are based on
COMDTINST 7301.1(series).

1625-0063

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