[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 124 (Friday, June 27, 1997)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 34667-34669]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-16778]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Research and Special Programs Administration

49 CFR Parts 171 and 172

[Docket No. HM-224A]
RIN 2137-AD02


Hazardous Materials: Shipping Description and Packaging of Oxygen 
Generators; Delay of Effective Date, Technical Amendments and 
Corrections

AGENCY: Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA), DOT.

ACTION: Final rule; delay of effective date, technical amendments and 
corrections.

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SUMMARY: On June 5, 1997, RSPA published a final rule which amended the 
Hazardous Materials Regulations by adding a specific shipping 
description to the Hazardous Materials Table for chemical oxygen 
generators. In this revision to the final rule, RSPA is delaying the 
effective date of the final rule for one month, authorizing permissive 
compliance immediately, correcting the identification number for 
chemical oxygen generators and a typographic error in the Hazardous 
Materials Table entry for them, and revising Special provision 60 for 
clarity and to provide additional time to conform to additional 
approval procedures.

DATES: Effective dates: The effective date for the final rule published 
at 62 FR 30767 under Docket HM-224A on June 5, 1997, is delayed from 
July 7, 1997 to August 7, 1997. The amendments and corrections in this 
final rule are effective August 7, 1997.
    Applicability: The provisions of Sec. 172.101(l)(1)(ii), which 
otherwise would allow up to one year after a change in the Hazardous 
Materials Table to use up stocks of preprinted shipping papers and to 
ship packages that were marked prior to the change, do not apply to 
these amendments and corrections.
    Permissive compliance date: Compliance with the requirements 
adopted in this final rule and in the final rule published at 62 FR 
30767 is authorized immediately.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Diane LaValle, Office of Hazardous 
Materials Standards, 202-366-8553, Research and Special Programs 
Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, 
SW, Washington, DC 20590-0001.


[[Page 34668]]


SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: A final rule was published in the Federal 
Register on June 5, 1997 (62 FR 30767) under Docket HM-224A. In the 
final rule, RSPA amended the Hazardous Materials Regulations (49 CFR 
parts 171-180; HMR) by adding a specific shipping description to the 
Hazardous Materials Table in Sec. 172.101 for chemical oxygen 
generators and requiring approval of a chemical oxygen generator, 
including its packaging, when it is to be transported with its means of 
initiation attached. In this document, RSPA is making editorial and 
technical revisions which it believes necessary to correct or clarify 
the final rule and facilitate compliance with its provisions. The 
changes respond to telephone and written comments RSPA has received 
concerning the June 5, 1997 final rule.

Effective Date and Permissive Compliance Date

    The effective date for compliance with the June 5, 1997 final rule 
is delayed from July 7, 1997 to August 7, 1997 and the amendments in 
this final rule also are made effective August 7, 1997. RSPA believes 
that this one month delay of the effective date is necessary to provide 
adequate time for shippers to identify and mark previously packaged 
chemical oxygen generators and to implement the marking requirement for 
current production.
    RSPA is authorizing permissive compliance immediately and strongly 
encourages shippers of chemical oxygen generators to comply immediately 
with the new shipping description requirements. The Federal Aviation 
Administration has advised RSPA that lack of a shipping description in 
the HMR is contributing to confusion in the transportation of chemical 
oxygen generators and has resulted in their unauthorized transportation 
in certain instances.

Shipping Description

    The identification number for oxygen generator, chemical, in the 
Hazardous Materials Table in Sec. 172.101 was incorrectly identified in 
the final rule as ``UN3353''. Therefore, RSPA is correcting the 
identification number to read ``UN3356'' consistent with the United 
Nations Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods.
    RSPA is removing the Packing Group I entry for ``Oxygen generators, 
chemical''. Although some of the oxidizing materials used in oxygen 
generators may be in Packing Group I, RSPA believes the Packing Group 
II designation adequately identifies the level of risk posed by these 
devices and is desirable for consistency with provisions adopted for 
inclusion in the Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of 
Dangerous Goods by Air of the International Civil Aviation Organization 
(ICAO Technical Instructions). In addition, the table entry under 
column 10A is corrected to read ``D.''

Special Provision 60

    RSPA is providing for a delay, until October 1, 1997, in mandatory 
compliance with Special Provision 60 so that persons who offer 
generators (including company materials) may obtain any new or revised 
approvals needed to comply with the requirements of the special 
provision. RSPA is revising the special provision to clarify that a 
copy of an approval must be maintained at each facility where a 
chemical oxygen generator is packaged, rather than where it is 
``prepared for shipment''. Also, RSPA is clarifying that the approval 
requirements apply to any chemical oxygen generator that is shipped 
with its means of initiation attached and that, if the means of 
initiation involve use of an explosive (e.g., a primer or an electric 
match), the approval procedures of Sec. 173.56 must be followed.
    Historically, all new explosives, including devices such as 
chemical oxygen generators which contain an explosive means of ignition 
(e.g., a primer or an electric match), must be examined by an agency 
designated by the Associate Administrator for Hazardous Materials 
Safety (Associate Administrator) and classed and approved by the 
Associate Administrator before being offered for transportation (see 
Sec. 173.56). Otherwise the explosive device is a ``Forbidden 
explosive'' and may not be offered for transportation or transported, 
as specified in Secs. 173.21 and 173.54. RSPA is aware that some of 
these past approvals for chemical oxygen generators may not have 
included a requirement for at least two positive means of preventing 
unintentional activation as required by the June 5, 1997 final rule, 
and that some older approvals which were issued by the Bureau of 
Explosives may not have approval numbers assigned to them. There also 
may be chemical oxygen generators which are initiated with other than 
an explosive means, and these generators would not have needed an 
approval prior to the June 5, 1997 final rule. For these reasons, RSPA 
believes a delay in the implementation date for the new approval 
procedures is warranted.
    RSPA emphasizes that if the original approval for a chemical oxygen 
generator specifies a specific packaging configuration as a condition 
of the approval, any change in the packaging configuration requires a 
separate approval. RSPA expects strict conformance with the 
requirements stated above, but also recognizes the burden involved in a 
complete reexamination each time a generator containing an explosive 
substance is modified. Accordingly, in administering Special Provision 
60, the Associate Administrator will not require a complete 
reexamination when a modification to an approved device or its 
packaging is unrelated to the risk being addressed by the regulation 
(e.g., a change in an oxygen outlet at the end opposite the initiating 
device).
    The reader is referred to the preamble discussion in the June 5, 
1997, final rule under Docket HM-224A addressing approval requirements, 
62 FR 30768-69.

ICAO Technical Instructions

    Recently, provisions for chemical oxygen generators were adopted 
for inclusion into the ICAO Technical Instructions. These provisions 
include: (1) adding a shipping description; (2) forbidding the 
transportation on passenger-carrying aircraft of chemical oxygen 
generators; (3) forbidding the transportation on any aircraft of 
chemical oxygen generators which have passed their expiration date or 
which have been used; and, (4) adding a packing instruction for 
chemical oxygen generators intended for transportation on cargo 
aircraft. The major provisions of the packing instruction are as 
follows:
    Oxygen generator, chemical containing oxidizing substances must 
meet all the following conditions:
    (a) The generator, without its packaging, must be capable of 
withstanding a 1.8m drop test on to a rigid, non-resilient, flat and 
horizontal surface, in the position most likely to cause damage, 
without loss of its contents and without actuation;
    (b) When a generator is equipped with an actuating device, it must 
have at least two positive means of preventing unintentional actuation;
    (c) The generator(s) must be transported in a package which will 
meet the following requirements when one generator in the package is 
actuated:
    (1) Other generators in the package will not be actuated;
    (2) Packaging material will not ignite; and
    (3) The outside surface temperature of the completed package must 
not exceed 100  deg.C

[[Page 34669]]

    (d) The generator(s) must be tightly packed in steel drums (1A2), 
aluminum drums (1B2), plywood drums 1(D), fibre drums (1G), plastic 
drums (1H2), steel jerricans (3A2), plastic jerricans (3H2), metal 
boxes (4A, 4B), wooden boxes (4C1, 4C2), plywood boxes (4D), 
reconstituted wood boxes (4F), fibreboard boxes (4G) or solid plastic 
boxes (4H2).
    RSPA expects that this packing instruction will become effective in 
the ICAO Technical Instructions in the near future. RSPA anticipates 
that any approval it issues under new Special Provision 60 for a 
chemical oxygen generator intended for transportation aboard cargo 
aircraft will require the chemical oxygen generator to be packaged in 
accordance with the ICAO provisions.

List of Subjects in 49 CFR Part 172

    Hazardous materials transportation, Hazardous waste, Labeling, 
Packaging and containers, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

    In consideration of the foregoing 49 CFR Part 172 is amended as 
follows:

PART 172--[AMENDED]

    1. The authority citation for part 172 continues to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 49 U.S.C. 5101-5127; 49 CFR 1.53.


Sec. 172.101  [Corrected]

    2. In the Sec. 172.101 Hazardous Materials Table, as amended at 62 
FR 30771, for the entry ``Oxygen generator, chemical'', in columns (5) 
through (10B), the first entry PG I is removed, and, for the second 
entry PG II, the identification number ``UN3353'' in Column (4) is 
corrected to read ``UN3356'' and the number ``(1)'' in column (10A) is 
corrected to read ``D''.
    3. In Sec. 172.102(c)(1), Special Provision 60 is revised to read 
as follows:


Sec. 172.102  Special provisions.

* * * * *
    (c) * * *
    (1) * * *
* * * * *
    60  After September 30, 1997, an oxygen generator, chemical, 
that is shipped with its means of initiation attached must 
incorporate at least two positive means of preventing unintentional 
actuation of the generator, and be classed and approved by the 
Associate Administrator for Hazardous Materials Safety. The 
procedures for approval of a chemical oxygen generator that contains 
an explosive means of initiation (e.g., a primer or electric match) 
are specified in Sec. 173.56 of this subchapter. Each person who 
offers a chemical oxygen generator for transportation after 
September 30, 1997, shall: (1) ensure that it is offered in 
conformance with the conditions of the approval; (2) maintain a copy 
of the approval at each facility where the chemical oxygen generator 
is packaged; and (3) mark the approval number on the outside of the 
package.
* * * * *
    Issued in Washington, DC on June 23, 1997, under the authority 
delegated in 49 CFR part 1.
Kelley S. Coyner,
Deputy Administrator, Research and Special Programs Administration.
[FR Doc. 97-16778 Filed 6-26-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-60-P