TradePost Archives > January 15, 2009 > this article

DOT harmonizes hazmat regulations with international standards

January 14, 2009
World Trade\Interactive

The Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has issued a final rule making a number of changes to the Hazardous Materials Regulations. PHMSA states that these revisions are necessary to harmonize the HMR with recent changes to the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code, the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air, Transport Canada’s Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations and the United Nations Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods.

This final rule is effective as of Feb. 13. Although PHMSA is authorizing voluntary compliance with the rule as of Jan. 1, 2009, with certain exceptions it is not requiring compliance until Jan. 1, 2010.

Amendments Being Adopted

• Batteries and battery-powered devices – clarification of the prohibition against transporting electrical devices, including batteries and battery-powered devices that are likely to create sparks or generate a dangerous amount of heat; modification and enhancement of requirements for the packaging and handling of batteries and battery-powered devices, particularly in air commerce, to emphasize the safety precautions that are necessary to prevent incidents during transportation

• Hazardous Materials Table – amendments to the HMT to add, revise or remove certain proper shipping names, hazard classes, packing groups, special provisions, packaging authorizations, bulk packaging requirements, passenger and cargo aircraft maximum quantity limitations and vessels stowage provisions

• Fuel cells – amendments to the HMT to add four new proper shipping names to
describe the range of fuel used in fuel cell cartridges: corrosive substances, liquefied flammable gas, hydrogen in metal hydride and water-reactive substances

• Small quantity exceptions – amendments maintaining current allowances for small quantities of certain materials transported by highway and rail and adopting the UN and ICAO excepted quantity provisions for transportation by aircraft or vessel

• Incident reporting – amendments to provisions that except certain hazardous materials or commodities from HMR requirements, including incident reporting requirements, to emphasize the need for reporting and address the need to obtain more accurate and complete data on incidents

• Organic Peroxide Tables – amendments to the Organic Peroxide Tables to add, revise or remove certain hazardous materials and provisions

• Petitions for rulemaking – addressing petitions for rulemaking requesting that PHMSA (a) remove the requirement that the type of package be included on the notification of pilot-in-command, (b) specify that pictograms described in the UN Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals are not prohibited under the HMR, (c) include a new proper shipping name (powder, smokeless) on the HMT, (d) allow the marine pollutant list to remain the basis in domestic transportation for regulating substances hazardous to the environment while permitting substances meeting the new IMDG Code criteria to be transported as substances hazardous to the environment, and (e) align HMR provisions for the transport of fuel cell systems and cartridges with international standards

Amendments Not Adopted

This rule also lists significant amendments to the international regulations that are not being adopted in the HMR at this time. Among these are changes concerning hazard communication on air waybills that PHMSA had originally proposed to adopt. These amendments would have required the consignor to indicate on the air waybill that certain hazardous materials or articles have met the conditions for transport as specified in the applicable exception or special provision. Other changes not being adopted affect hazmat security, radioactive materials, infectious substances, testing of packaging and intermediate bulk containers, bromine, packaging for paint and paint-related material, lithium batteries and airport signage.