Welcome to May! Hopefully, most of us will get to enjoy the spring flowers that April showers presage. However, May is also the statistically most active month for tornado activity in the continental US. So, it is a good month to keep an eye on the sky and to ensure that your workplace’s emergency shelter plan is up to date and that employees know their role if it becomes necessary to enact the plan. Meanwhile, here’s the last week’s regulatory news:

IATA

The Association has published an update, or addendum to the 66^th edition of the DGR. The update is relatively minor, consisting mostly of revisions to state and carrier limitations. There is also some updates applied in the realm of sodium ion batteries—close chemical cousins to lithium ion batteries and treated similarly under the same packing instructions. For example, Section II training requirements are revised to include them. The DGL is also updated with sodium batteries assigned to certain special provisions. Other DGL edits include the reinsertion of certain Class 8 corrosives. See the full addendum here:

Microsoft Word – DGR-66 Addendum 1 – EN – Final

PHMSA

The agency released a new Letter of Interpretation (LOI) in response to a request for clarification regarding the suitability (or lack thereof) of certain types of non-rigid packaging (such as plastic bags) when used with consumer goods that themselves are placed in rigid retail packages when being shipped as Limited Quantities. The gist of the LOI is that the onus of determining suitability is up to the offeror, however PHMSA also cautions against assuming that any given package may or may not be suitable, instead noting that such situations must be judged on a case basis. See the LOI here:

PMSA Final Response Sturdy Packaging

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