PHMSA has prospective new leadership. A new administrator will, if confirmed, be joining its ranks from the railroad industry. Nominee Howard Elliott hails from Class 1 giant CSX. A CSX train rolls west past the signals in Wauseon, Ohio in September of 2014. Image © 9/2014 by Nikki Burgess; all rights reserved.
Labor Day has come and gone and the summer concluded with Labelmaster’s biggest annual event; the Dangerous Goods Symposium! This year’s meeting was held in our headquarters city of Chicago, Illinois. Hopefully many of you had an opportunity to attend; it’s one of our industry’s biggest get-togethers. If not, see the rest of our blog spaces for coverage of the goings on, and we hope you’ll make plans for next year! We’ll make sure the lineup is just as helpful and productive. Today, we also pause to reflect on the events of September 11th, 2001. May we always remember.
Although things remain a little slow, this week’s digest covers the last two weeks of regulatory news, so let’s get started:
PHMSA
The agency has a prospective new head. The rail industry goes to front and center with the nomination of Howard R. Elliott to be Administrator. Mr. Elliott is a forty-year veteran of the U.S. freight rail industry; his last position was as VP of CSX Transportation’s HS&E and security operations.
Mexico Radioactive Materials Update
The nation of Mexico has published updated regulations in reference to the safe handling and transport of radioactive materials. These bring Mexico up to date with the most recent changes implemented under UN and IAEA updates. See the changes here; please note that the official documents are printed in Spanish and any translation as below may change the language slightly:
- http://www.costha.com/uploads/PDF/1504899706_DOF%20PROY-NOM-009-NUCL-2017%20English.pdf
- http://www.costha.com/uploads/PDF/1504899706_DOF%20PROY-NOM-014-NUCL-2017%20English.pdf
US Coast Guard
The Coast Guard will have a meeting of its Chemical Transportation Advisory Committee on October 3rd in Washington DC. If you ship chemicals using maritime modes, you may find this of interest. Here’s the details
Chemical Safety Board
A little known agency that has importance across virtually the entire spectrum of American industry is the Chemical Safety Board, tasked with investigating any accident or incident involving chemicals—and making recommendations to the relevant regulators about what to do to help stop a recurrence e. The next meeting of this vital board will be on September 18th; see the details right here
OSHA
The nation’s safety agency has issued an ICR related to escape and evacuation plans for industry. With the recent dreadful weather events on our nation’s gulf coast, has your company decided what to do if you need to get your people out safely? OSHA wants to know. See the ICR here
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