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Miscellaneous
Last Updated
10/1/08
| Item | Topic | Date Posted |
10/1/08
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| Terrorism concerns find issue with hazardous materials placards | 09/23/03 | |
| Training - Step by Step | 09/03/03 | |
| RSPA Organizational Chart | 07/22/03 | |
| RSPA-03-14793 | Safety Advisory Notice | 07/15/03 |
| Volume 68, Number 109 | Postal Sevice 39CFR Part 111 Hazardous Materials; Domestic Mail Manual Revisions for Division 6.2 Infectious Substances and Other Related Charges | 07/10/03 |
| N/A | The National Tank Truck Carriers, Inc. have published security guidelines on the public portion of their web. Click on: http://www.tanktruck.net/index.html | 07/10/03 |
| N/A | Federal Highway Administration unveils new website | 07/10/03 |
| N/A | Notice of embargo and prohibition on transportation or offering for transportation in interstate commerce of certain rodents and prairie dogs. | 07/10/03 |
|
RSPA-2003-14424, Notice No. 03-2 |
Formal Interpretation of Regulations | 07/10/03 |
Terrorism concerns find issue with hazardous materials placards
Summary: ST. LOUIS - (KRT) - The
U.S. Department of Transportation wants to keep hazardous materials warning
placards on trucks and trains even though the diamond-shaped signs could help
terrorists pick targets. Removing the placards would put in danger firefighters
and others who respond to wrecks, derailments, leaks and releases, said a report
by the DOT's Research and Special Programs Administration just made public.
Placards help emergency responders quickly determine what risks they face by
identifying the chemicals and other hazardous materials inside containers.
But the Department of Homeland Security, whose job is protecting the United
States from terrorist acts, is continuing its push to remove the placards. And
the Transportation Department acknowledges the issue is not closed.
"This is Homeland Security's baby but the ramifications of removing those
placards to the safety of emergency responders and the public throughout the
country could be enormous," said Alan Roberts, president of the Dangerous Goods
Advisory Council. The Washington-based organization represents domestic and
international industries involved with hazardous material.
"Most people in the industry, especially those involved with the transportation
of hazardous material, are greatly concerned with protecting dangerous cargo
from terrorist attack," Robert said, "but the Department of Homeland Security
needs to more carefully understand the risk to the public and emergency
responders that will surely accompany eliminating these hazard placards."
The 41-page study by the Research and Special Programs Administration concluded
this year that the small signs should remain - for now - because they provide
vital information to firefighter, transport workers and others. But several
sources say the idea is still under review.
"Based on intelligence received, the threat to hazardous materials cargoes by
terrorists is a very real concern," authors of the Jan. 15 study wrote. "Some in
the industry and security communities believe that terrorists may use placards
to help identify targets of opportunity for destruction or shipments they can
hijack or steal and use in planned attacks."
The report illustrates one dilemma facing homeland security planners following
the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. On one hand, the decades-old practice
of posting a color- and number-coded sign on hazardous shipments provides vital
information to people who come in daily contact with the shipments, particularly
emergency responders.
On the other is the concern that terrorists will target these shipments for
spectacular attacks on U.S. soil. The report cited questions about whether the
placards - some of which carry universally known symbols for radiation,
flammables and poisons - are "detrimental to security interests," and whether a
more secure substitute is warranted.
Joe Delcambre, spokesman for the Research and Special Programs Administration,
said the federal government is not currently seeking a rule change to abolish
placards, but "we do leave it open for continual review. ? It is not a closed
issue."
The report was launched after someone in the White House contacted then-agency
Administrator Ellen Engleman to look into the issue, Delcambre said.
The idea surfaced in mid-February as part of the Bush administration's strategy
for protecting critical infrastructure. That report stated that the marking of
railroad container cars used to carry hazardous materials was an "area of
concern."
The report suggested planners "devise a system of markings that terrorists
cannot easily decipher." Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman
Chris Rhatigan said that after a July 25 workshop on the issue held in
Baltimore, the agency determined that further study is needed "in the interest
of security." The agency won't make any recommendations until everyone who would
be affected is heard.
Few dispute that Roberts was the driving force in getting the government to
mandate the use of the colored hazard warnings. For many of his 40 years in
government, Roberts was Associate Administrator for Hazardous Materials Safety
in the Department of Transportation's Research and Special Programs
Administration.
Placards have different colors and symbols depending on the material. For
example, a black and white skull and crossbones indicates poison and toxic
material. A fuming beaker signals corrosives and acids. Orange is for
explosives, yellow for oxidizers, green for non-flammable gases, red for
flammable and combustible and a purple propeller indicates radioactive material.
Roberts said he's worried that any disruption of the hazardous material
identification system would increase the risks to firefighters, police and
medical technicians to responding to hazardous material incidents, while
offering little deterrent to terrorists looking for a target.
The estimated 3 million emergency responders in the United States have been
trained to recognize the colored diamond, which must be affixed to all railcars,
trucks and cargo containers carrying dangerous materials. They also know how
best to handle the fire or release of hazardous materials, he said.
"It has paid off. Anybody who was around in the '60s and '70s knows that we had
a lot of firefighters killed because they didn't recognize what was in the
derailed tankers or the overturned trucks," he said.
It was an explosion of two rail tank cars filled with propane in Waverly,Tenn.,
on Feb. 22, 1978, that killed 16 firefighters who had no idea what was in the
burning cars that emphasized the need for emergency responders to know what
hazards they were facing.
In April, Clackamas County, Ore., Fire Chief Randy Bruegman told a Senate panel
that there are about 17,000 hazardous materials incidents each year, of which
500 are considered serious.
Roberts said that 1.2 million shipments of hazardous material are in transit
every day - by air, water, road and rail. Placards allow firefighters to quickly
size up the danger from a distance and plan the proper response, said Bruegman,
president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. Dismantling the
current system "would be a significant mistake," he said. Because
first-responders would be blind to the hazard level, they would treat any
incident like a major public-safety threat, authors of the federal study found.
In turn, that would lead to more frequent shutdowns of major highways and
potentially unnecessary evacuations of neighborhoods and schools, hospitals and
businesses. The trucking industry is the largest consumer of hazardous-materials
placards and Rich Moskowitz, regulatory affairs counsel for the American
Trucking Associations, said Tuesday that the mandated signs have proven useful
to
emergency response crews.
"They are a cost-effective way of communicating what could be a safety hazard in
the event of an accident," Moskowitz said. While he acknowledges that there are
those who fear the placards would provide a "shopping list" to potential
aggressors, Moskowitz pointed out that a rental truck and van used in two
high-profile attacks carried no placards. Those were the 1995 bombing of the
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and the 1993 bombing of the
World Trade Center.
Removal of the signs would make it more difficult for ransport workers to ensure
that dangerous materials are handled safely, the study found. For instance,
placards help guide rail workers who decide where railcars containing hazardous
materials should go in a lineup of freight cars.
Because the placards are part of an international hazard communication system,
any change could "dramatically affect" the U.S. chemical trade and prove
disruptive at seaports and border crossings. Delcambre and the authors of the
Jan. 15 study pointed out that other efforts are under way to better safeguard
hazardous shipments, including training to improve security awareness,
publishing security advisories aimed at the private sector and outreach programs
aimed at helping motor carriers improve security.
Daniel M. Collins, president of Operation Respond Institute Inc., said he and
representatives of the railroad industry have met several times with the TSA
about field-testing potential alternatives to placards on rail tank cars. The
nonprofit Operation Respond provides a secondary means of identifying hazardous
shipments in railroad tank cars and sharing it with rescue crews. But Collins
said his group is not trying to position itself as a replacement for placards.
Shippers and transporters have developed anti-terrorism action plans aimed at
preventing a shipment from being used as a weapon, the report found.
The report weighed other approaches that could be used in lieu of placards.
Among them were the use of both armed and unarmed escorts, small radio-frequency
identification similar to those used on some tollways and remote
vehicle-tracking monitoring.
It found that while some of the technologies are available, putting them into
use would take "considerable time and resources." They were found to be
enhancements - not replacements - to placards.
A frequently asked question at DGI is, “ I ship by air, do I only need an IATA class?
Think about this. When a pilot learns to fly, does he jump right into the cockpit and take the controls? Of course not. There are many other courses such as weather and flight planning to take before they even get close to actually flying. And so it is with dangerous goods training.
Even if you only move air shipments, somehow, either by truck or rail, that freight has to get to the airport. Most likely it’s going to move over the US highway system. The US highway system is covered by Title 49 of the US Code of Federal Regulations, 49 CFR for short. You’d better know if your shipment is an RQ (Reportable Quantity) or if the truck needs to be placarded. You won’t find that information in the IATA (air) Regulations. It’s only found in 49CFR. I’d be very concerned if the highway patrol pulled over my vehicle and noted violations of the US Regulations. Penalties can be severe as well as negative publicity for your company.
We highly recommend following the steps below in order to become proficient at becoming a dangerous goods professional.
Step 1 - All hazmat employees must have:
General Awareness Training
Security Awareness Training
Safety Training
Step 2 - Are you a hazmat employee, performing specific hazmat functions in
the US and use Road/rail/air/ocean transport in/over/through US territories? -
You are required to be certified In the
US
Regulations, 49 CFR
Step 3
- Those are the basic foundations to build upon.
Now, do you also ship by; Air – Domestic or International? - You will need an IATA seminar
Ocean – Domestic or International - You will need an IMDG seminar.
All modes – Domestic and International? - You need a multi modal program that includes 49 CFR, IATA and IMDG training. (In which case you can skip step 2 above)
Step 4 - Do you ship specific Classes such as Radioactive Materials, Infectious Substances, Explosives That require more in-depth Instruction? - If you ship these items, additional training would be beneficial.
Step 5 - Do you transport dangerous goods to Canada? - It may be helpful to take a TDG class which covers the Canadian Regulations.
Step 6 - Would you like to train your own employees/co-workers? - Look into DGI’s Train-The Trainer Program
By following these steps in the order given, you will allow yourself to build the knowledge needed to ship, accept and transport dangerous goods competently and according to the correct modal regulations. DGI offers all of the above courses either by public seminar, at your facility or you may purchase training kits to train your own employees.
Now back to our original question. I ship by air, do I only need an IATA class? What do you think?
Federal Register: June 25, 2003
(Volume 68, Number 122) DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Research and Special
Programs Administration [Docket No. RSPA-03-14793; Notice No. 03-5] Safety
Advisory: Unauthorized Marking of Compressed Gas Cylinders AGENCY: Research and
Special Programs Administration (RSPA), DOT.
ACTION: Safety advisory notice.
SUMMARY: This is
to notify the public that RSPA is investigating the possible unauthorized
marking of high-pressure compressed gas cylinders by ABM Fire Equipment, 73
North Main Street, Milford, NY 13807. RSPA has evidence that suggests ABM Fire
Equipment marked, certified and returned to service an undetermined number of
high-pressure DOT specification and exemption cylinders as being properly
requalified in accordance with the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR), when
the cylinders may not have been hydrostatically retested and visually inspected.
A hydrostatic retest and visual inspection, conducted as prescribed in the HMR,
are used to verify the structural integrity of a cylinder. If the hydrostatic
retest and visual inspection are not performed in accordance with the HMR, a
cylinder with compromised structural integrity may be returned to service when
it should be condemned. Extensive property damage, serious personal injury, or
death could result from rupture of a cylinder. Cylinders that have not been
requalified in accordance with the HMR may not be charged or filled with
compressed gas or other hazardous material and offered for transportation in
commerce. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dave Clark, Hazardous Materials
Enforcement Specialist, Eastern Region, Office of Hazardous Materials
Enforcement, Research and Special Programs Administration, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 820 Bear Tavern Road, Suite 306, West Trenton, NJ 08628.
Telephone: (609) 989-2256, Fax: (609) 989-2277.
Click here to read the text file
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Hazardous
Materials: Formal Interpretation of Regulations
Agency: Research and
Special Programs Administration, DOT.
Action: Formal Interpretation of regulations
Summary: The Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA) is issuing a formal interpretation of the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) identifying when: (1) An airline passenger "offers" hazardous materials in carry-on baggage (including items on his/her person) or checked in baggage for transportation under Federal hazardous materials transportation law and the HMR, and (2) when an air carrier accepts carry-on baggage (including items on a passenger's person) or checked baggage for transportation under the Federal hazardous materials transportation law and the HMR.
For Further Information Contact: Nancy E Machado, Assistant Chief Counsel for Hazardous Materials Safety, Research and Technology, Office of the Chief Counsel, Research and Special Programs Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, DC 20590-001 (Tel. No. 202-366-4400)
Joint
Order of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The Food and Drug
Administration, Department of Health and Human Services
Action: Notice of embargo and prohibition on transportation or offering for
transportation in interstate commerce, or sale, offering for sale, or offering
for any other type of commercial or public distribution, including release into
the environment, of certain rodents and prairie dogs.
Summary: Shipments of rodents (order Rodentia) from Africa capable of
transmitting monkeypox virus in humans are being imported into the United States
and further distributed. In the United States, Prairie dogs (cynomys sp.)
and certain rodents from Africa may further transmit monkeypox virus in humans.
Because of the public health threat posed by the importation of rodents from
Africa, CDC is implementing an immediate embargo on the importation of all
rodents (order Rodentia) from Africa until further notice. In addition,
as a public health measure, CDC and FDA are prohibiting, until further notice,
the transportation or offering for transportation in interstate commerce, or the
sale or offering for sale, or offering for any other type of commercial or
public distribution, including the release into the environment, of Prairie dogs
and the following rodents from Africa: Tree squirrels (Heliosciurus sp.);
Rope squirrels (Funisciurus sp.); Dormices (Graphiurus sp.);
Gambian Giant Pouched Rats (Cricetomys sp.); Brush-tailed porcupines (Atherurus
sp.); Stiped mice (Hybomys sp.).
The prohibition does not apply to individuals who transport listed animals to veterinarians or animal control officers or other entities pursuant to guidance or instructions issued by federal, state of local governmental authorities.
This action is being taken because of at least six different species of potentially infected rodents been implicated in the current outbreak monkeypox virus in humans. Monkeypox virus was also subsequently transmitted from infected rodents to native prairie dogs. Based on epidemiologic and scientific knowledge gathered to date, specific interstate restrictions on the species within these genera are required to contain further movement of implicated animals. A ban on the intrastate sale or offering for sale or offering for any other type of commercial or public distribution of the species these genera is also necessary because of the potential impact on interstate disease spread.
Furthermore, a ban on the
importation of all rodents from Africa is necessary to mitigate the harm of
further introductions of monkeypox virus into the United States.
Date: This embargo and prohibition is effective on June 11, 2003 and will remain
in effect until further notice.
July 02,
U.S. Department of Transportation - Federal Highway Administration unveils new
website
The U.S. Department of
Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
today announced a new Web site to provide state and local agencies simple
access to information on improving
security in the operation of the surface transportation system. "The
need to ensure the security of America's surface transportation system is
a top priority for the FHWA," said FHWA
Administrator Mary E. Peters said.
Federal
Register: June 6, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 109) POSTAL SERVICE 39 CFR Part 111
Hazardous Materials: Domestic Mail Manual Revisions for Division 6.2 Infectious
Substances and Other Related Changes
ACTION: Final rule.
SUMMARY:
In this final rule, the
Postal Service adopts revisions to the mailing standards in Domestic Mail Manual
(DMM) C023 related to the requirements and packaging standards for mailable
types of Division 6.2 infectious substances. These DMM revisions adopt many of
the regulatory and packaging changes for infectious substances that the U.S.
Department of Transportation (DOT) made to Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations
(49 CFR) in the Federal Register final rule published on August 14, 2002 (67 FR
53117-53144) and the subsequent change published on August 27, 2002 (67 FR
54967). As adopted by the Postal Service, these DMM revisions will provide a
greater level of safety for handling and transporting mailable infectious
substances in the mailstream. These changes will also facilitate domestic and
international air transportation by aligning the Postal Service mailing
standards with the current international standards for the transport of
hazardous materials. Other minor changes and clarifications are also adopted to
the hazardous materials mailing standards in DMM C021, C023, C024, C050, and
F010 to improve clarity and reduce misunderstandings; to ensure the packaging
integrity of mailable hazardous materials during Postal Service handling; and to
provide a greater level of safety for Postal Service employees and the public.
EFFECTIVE DATE: June 12, 2003. However, mailers using a business reply mail
format for diagnostic (clinical) specimen mailpieces or a merchandise return
service format for sharps waste or regulated medical waste mailpieces, are
[[Page 33859]] provided with a phase-in period through January 1, 2004.
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