It’s PTC Quarterly reporting time, as required by the FRA. The signals for the new control system are in place at Vader (yes—Vader) Washington on Saturday, May 7th as a BNSF freight train heads south towards Oregon. Photo © 5/2016 by Nikki Burgess; all rights reserved.

After a relatively quiet couple of weeks, things have picked back up and filled the digest with news.  Here are the newest updates from the world of Dangerous Goods and EH&S:

OSHA:

• In conjunction with the Obama Administration cooperated to proclaim April 28^th as “Workers Memorial Day.”  The event is intended to mark the still regrettably too large loss of life in the workplace due to safety problems and to raise awareness of how important following OSHA regulations really is.  See the news here 
• Zika Virus Effort: The Zika Virus has been much in the news lately due to its apparent potential to cause birth defects in the unborn as well as a range of problems in exposed adults and children.  The mosquito borne illness has recently been spreading with troubling rapidity in the United States from South and Central America.  OSHA is providing guidance to employers on how to help prevent transmission to people in the workplace and to limit the potential for its spread by controlling potential mosquito breeding areas.  Get the new help here

Transport Canada:

Transport Canada issued its new Protective Directive #36, revising its Dangerous Goods program as follows:

1. Increased data requirements, including specific maximum volume of dangerous goods transported, frequency, and data reporting requirements;
2. Confidentiality agreements adding more flexibility to enable better sharing amongst emergency planners within municipalities; and
3. Public information, requiring rail carriers to share information that could be disclosed publicly.

This PD provides jurisdictions with appropriate dangerous goods information needed to conduct their risk assessments, emergency planning activities, and identify training requirements for first responders by adding new requirements to the ones covered in PD 32. See the new guidance here

U.S. EPA:

• The EPA has shortened by a third its planned late May meeting  series regarding 1-Bromopropane, a widely used industrial chemical.  The advisory committee will now only meet for two days (5/24-25/16) vice three, so those interested in attending either in person or via remote connections may want to plan accordingly.  The revised schedule is here 
• The EPA also issued an Information Collection request in reference to its monitoring program for the heavy metal Hexavalent Chromium in Construction, Shipyard, and General Industry.  The program monitors affected workers for health issues related to long term exposure.  See the new ICR here

FTHSA:

The new just keeps getting worse for airbag maker Takata and the many carmakers who use that product line—not to mention the millions of affected car owners.  The Federal Transportation Highway Safety Administration’s (FTHSA) recall in effect for the potentially dangerous (deployment could be accompanied by a hail of lethal metal shrapnel) units was doubled, and now stands at approximately 70 million—million—units.  Wait times for repairs could stretch for months, as well as posing a busy Dangerous Goods regimen on dealers shipping the units out for replacement.  See the latest here

U.S. Coast Guard:

• The US Coast Guard issued a Marine Safety Bulletin (#009/16) which establishes equivalency between US law and the internationally based SOLAS (“Safety of Life at Sea) Regulation V1/2.  This all deals with the new issue of having verified container weights declared for shipping containers traveling by ocean carrier.  The new bulletin allows US carriers following the SOLAS regulation to know that they are meeting the revised US law as well.  Find out more here 
• In further Coast Guard/SOLAS news, the agency issued an interim rule mandating US ocean carriers to have a copy of a “Cargo Securing Manual” aboard any self-propelled cargo carrying vessel greater than 500 tons.  The manual sets out correct means of securing cargo to prevent accidents.  Details right here

FRA:

• The Federal Railroad Administration has issued a new quarterly Information Collection Request to monitor implementation of Positive Train Control, or PTC.  The new request is part of the PTC extension legislation which went into effect on January 1^st and requires railroads to report progress every 90 days to the FRA.  The new control system mandate is the result of several passenger and freight train accidents which investigators attributed to preventable human error.  See the ICR here 
• The FAA has released a new poster that illustrates the rules regarding e-cigarettes and spare lithium batteries, both of which may not be placed in checked baggage but instead may only be carried aboard.  The free download is intended to help users inform their customers about the new rules.  Get the poster here

FMCSA:

Summer is coming!  How do we know?  Every spring the FMCSA reviews hours of service applications and exemption extensions granted to members of the American Pyrotechnics Association who are involved with the transport and setup of professional fireworks displays for typical July 4 celebrations.  Those are now showing up in the Federal Register, so get those picnics ready!  See the news here

Labelmaster is a full service provider of products and services for the Hazardous Materials and Dangerous Goods professional, shippers, transport operators, and EH&S providers. See our full line of solutions at www.labelmaster.com.