Study on shipments of hazardous chemicals relates to rising incidence of accidents such as this one last month
Chemical & Engineering
NEWS SEPTEMBER 1 , 1969
SHIPMENTS STUDY READY Debated for more than a year by the chemical industry and others who ship hazardous materials, the proposed overhaul of the Department of Transportation's rules regulating and procedures concerning such activity moved several steps closer to reality last week. At press time, Transportation was expected to release a National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council study made for DOT's Office of Hazardous Materials. Action appeared imminent on one of the broad recommendations in the study—setting up a unified accident reporting system. Generally, the study backs up DOT's call a year ago to cast the regulations in general terms and eliminate much of the detail. "A regulatory system based on more technically standardized criteria and encompassing all transportation modes appears achievable and highly desirable," the report points out, adding that "such
TWO-PART ISSUE The Sept. 1, 1969, issue of Chemical and Engineering News is a two-part one. Besides the regular weekly magazine, readers will receive a separate magazine with its own cover devoted to Facts & Figures for the Chemical Process Industries—an annual survey.
a system should prove more adaptable than the present system in accommodating new commercial materials, transportation technology developments, and public needs." But Dr. Donald L. Katz, study chairman and chemical engineering professor at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, cautions that action on this and other NAS-NRC proposals will very probably be a very gradual, evolutionary process. NAS-NRC and Transportation sources also point out that though the study's appearance coincides in time with the furor over shipping phosgene, timing of the study more directly relates to the rising incidence of transportation accidents involving hazardous materials. In one general recommendation, the NAS-NRC study group, not surprisingly, asks for $10 million annually in R&D support, stating that such investment would bring "generous returns" to the national welfare—economically, it would encourage advances in shipping methods and materials, and socially, reduce the frictions between those governing and those governed, as well as more capably safeguarding human life and health. Beyond such general findings, the study recommends: • Establishing "environmental standards" to define the transportation environment's extremes.
Chairman Katz Very gradual, evolutionary process
• Setting interim standards when feasible as existing regulations, data : and other resources are analyzed. • Developing a system for all transportation modes to classify materials by type and degree of potential hazard. • Developing a "classification concept" that identifies three major hazard types—health, flammability, and reactivity—for materials. Dr. Katz indicates the need for a reporting system, saying that "nowhere is all this information put into the hopper, digested, and made available." Action on this may come soon. William C. Jennings, director of DOT's Office of Hazardous Materials, tells C&EN that publication of proposed rule making is expected in the near future, and that, depending upon public comment, final regulations could be published at the end of the year to take effect next year. SEPT. 1, 1969 C&EN 9
