Guest blogger Chandra Deeds Gioiello helps clients across the globe navigate regulations with Industrial Health & Safety Consultants, Inc. She is a registered Safety Data Sheet and Label Author and a Certified Industrial Hygienist, specializing in international hazard communication regulations. I have written Safety Data Sheets for employers throughout the world. I’ve classified mixtures according…
2018 Rail PTC Extension rolls through Congress
Congress acted to avert confusion and delay on the nation’s rail infrastructure on Wednesday October 28th, 2015 by passing an extension to what had been a looming December 31st, 2015 deadline for railroads to fully implement Positive Train Control, or PTC, control systems on their networks. PTC is a control system that uses Global Positioning…
FAA to develop task force addressing drone registrations
Drone operators in the U.S. are going to be impacted by some big regulatory changes in the near future. Drones, referred to as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), currently are not to be operated within 5 miles of an airport without notifying the airport operator/control tower, and are limited to an altitude of 400 feet. The…
Congressional politics threaten PTC extension bill
Just when American railroads were perhaps starting to breathe a bit easier about the December 31st, 2015 Positive Train Control (PTC) deadline account the seeming agreement in the House of Representatives about extending the deadline to 2018 under a pending bill HR 3651, new political roadblocks to passage appear to be arising. On Wednesday October…
Congress advances bill to delay Railroad PTC Mandate
The US House of Representatives has introduced legislation to delay until 2018 the current deadline for US railroads to implement Positive Train Control (PTC) systems on their tracks. As discussed in a previous blog on the subject, the nation’s railroads have jointly stated the physical impossibility of completing such an inter-operative system by the end…
PHMSA/FAA Meet to Discuss Concerns on Lithium Battery Transport
The US Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) held a joint public meeting in Washington, DC on September 18th. The principal topic of discussion was the situation regarding the transport of lithium batteries via aircraft. This past summer, many individual airlines took action to limit the…
PTC Alert! The Positive Train Control Deadline Creates a Potential Transportation Crisis
UPDATE: Congress advances bill to delay Railroad PTC Mandate Will January 1, 2016 be the day the trains stop? As America’s railroads and Congress fail to agree on extending the December 31 deadline for implementing Positive Train Control systems, that threat inches closer to reality. The railroads have threatened to essentially shut down all service…
New DOT/PHMSA Interpretation Brings Some Clarity to the Lithium Ion Watts Issue
In a formal Letter of Interpretation dated August 19th, 2015 to Mr. Mike Revis USDOT/PHMSA stated categorically that a Lithium Ion Battery being shipped under the exceptions granted in 49 CFR 173.185(c) may have cells which feature watt hour ratings greater than 20 watt hours as long as the battery itself remains less than one…
Infographic | The Essential ERG (Emergency Response Guidebook)
The Emergency Response Guide—better known as the ERG— is the first resource for identifying and responding to chemical hazards in a transportation emergency. You’ll find it anywhere people have a stake in the safe handling, transport and storage of Dangerous Goods. New additions, revisions and updates make the 2016 ERG the most essential ever. Here…
Why the updated 2016 Emergency Response Guidebook is more essential than ever
Every four years the United States, Canadian and Mexican governments cooperate in issuing a revised edition of a wonderfully useful and often terribly important little orange book: the Emergency Response Guidebook, commonly known as “the ERG.” The 2016 edition is coming soon, and it promises to be more essential than ever. From “quick and dirty”…