# Currie Associates, Inc — Hazardous Materials Safety Interpretation **Citation:** 04-0032 **Type / status:** guidance / guidance **Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration **Effective:** Not stated **Published:** 2004-04-05 04-0032 response to Currie Associates, Inc concerning 172.604. ## Document text <<>> U.S. Department of Transportation Special Programs Research and APR 5 2004 400 Seventh St., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20590 Administration Mr. John V. Currie Currie Associates, Inc. Ref. No. 04-0032 1118 Bay Road Lake George, New York 12845-4618 Dear Mr. Currie: This is in response to your February 18, 2004 letter regarding the emergency response telephone number requirements under the Specifically, you ask whether the emergency response telephone Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180). number may be in the form of "alpha characters" representing a telephone number on the telephone dial or keypad of a telephone. The answer is yes. As specified in $ 172,604, a person offering response telephone number, including the area code or a hazardous material for transportation must provide an emergency international access code, for use in the event of an emergency involving the hazardous material. use of "alpha characters" as a method of complying with this The HMR do not prohibit the requirement. However, based on the concerns you rasied, we may • Based on the done m consider publishing a noțice of proposed rulemaking to address this issue in the future. questions, please do not hesitate to contact this office. I hope this information is helpful. If you have additional Sincerely, Regulatory Review Hattie I. Mitchell, Chief Office of Hazardous Materials Standards and Reinvention §172.604 040032 <<>> Betts $172.604 Emergency Response Telephone CURRIE ASSOCIATES, INC. Number THE GLOBAL COMPLIANCE PROFESSIONALS . 04-0032 Dr. Robert McGuire, Ph.D. February 18, 2004 Associate Administrator Research and Special Programs Administration 400 7* Street, SW DHM-1 Washington, DC 20590-0001 Dear Dr. McGuire: I am submitting this request for consideration of an official interpretation of the requirements applicable to 49 CFR, Part 172, Subpart G, §172.604 Emergency Response telephone number. On behalf of several of my clients and as a former emergency responder wę have a joint concern regarding immediate access to the information that may be required to be provided by the "person who is either knowledgeable of the hazardous material being shipped and has comprehensive emergency response and incident mitigation information for that material, or has immediate access to a person who possesses such knowledge and information." Several places throughout the section and more particularly at §172.604(b), the regulations specifically require a "number" and states "The telephone number required by paragraph (a) of this section must be the number of the person offering the accepting responsibility for, providing detailed information concerning a hazardous hazardous material for transportation or the number of an organization capable of, and material." (Emphasis added by underlining) It has been brought to our attention thạt some shippers are using the "alpha characters" representing a telephone number on the telephone dial or keypad of à telephone. It is possible that in some instances the letters may form an acronym advertising an agency or shipper company division that has accepted the responsibility for providing the emergency response information. In the past most wall or desk telephones had rotary dials with large numerals and equally large letters, usually three letters representing each number, or were equipped with keypads which also had large numerals and equally large letters, similarly configured. However, please permit me to call to your attention that the introduction of wireless and cellular phone service has increasingly focused on miniaturizing the hardware for convenience in mobile use. Modern cellular phones are now so small that they may be carried in a shirt pocket and some even include a computer keypad function that require a 1118 BAY ROAD * LAKE GEORGE, NEW YORK 12845-4618 * TEL: (518) 761-0668 FAX: (518) 792-7781 http://www.currieassociates.com Email: mail@currieassociates.com <<>> Page 2 of 2 make reading of the letters on the small buttons of a keypad extremely difficult under stylus to push the tiny buttons. These modern telephones, due to the reduction in size, good lighting conditions and virtually impossible in poor light. Many emergency responders, including firefighters, police, and emergency medical technicians are equipped with cellular telephones and rely on these phones for on-scene communications. Requiring these responders to transpose letters into numbers to reach materials release, under normal conditions such as night time incidents could result in the emergency response contact and obtain critical information at the scene of hazardous loss of valuable time. Under conditions usually associated with an accident scene, such as not feel that these emergency responders should be encumbered in any way in obtaining wearing "turn-out gear" and other distractions, the difficulty could be exacerbated. We do the necessary information as quickly as possible in the emergency situation. In the interest of transportation safety, we would therefore request an official written clarification be issued as expeditiously as possible that in consideration of these factors, regulations at §172.604 and accordingly §172.201(d). would include a literal interpretation of the term telephone number within the text of the Sincerely yours, Softl une John V. Currie Currie Associates, Inc. ## Provenance - Official: Yes - Source: - Source ID: `phmsa` - SHA-256: `3df14b65ce900ea910b124ac508df386960b6c1d2fa96a91c00443f3b70e248a` - Retrieved: 2026-08-20T00:59:31.977Z - Exported: 2026-08-23T14:45:03.939Z - Document slug: `phmsa-interpretation-04-0032` ### Source metadata ```json { "materialSubtype": "interpretation", "interpretationArea": "hazardous_materials", "representation": "full_text_from_official_pdf", "companies": [ "Currie Associates, Inc" ], "individuals": [ "Mr. John V. Currie" ], "refIds": [ "04-0032" ], "catalogDates": [ "2004-04-05" ], "catalogParts": [ 172 ], "catalogRowCount": 1, "sourceRecordUrls": [ "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/node/48951" ], "linkedAttachmentUrls": [], "unavailableResponseUrls": [], "duplicateRepresentationUrls": [], "citedSections": [ "172.604", "172.201(d)" ], "catalogPageUrls": [ "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/regulations/title49/section/172604" ], "pdfUrls": [ "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretation%20Files/2004/040032.pdf" ], "representations": [ { "viewUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretation%20Files/2004/040032.pdf", "detailUrl": null, "detailHtmlPath": null, "pdfUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretation%20Files/2004/040032.pdf", "pdfArtifactPath": "data/sources/phmsa-interpretations/04-0032-5c4a286688.pdf", "pdfArtifactSha256": "6ce31e2de02200b789db011224c4f39c75f1da66f81ac3b11ca44babd037ab3c", "extractedTextPath": "data/sources/phmsa-interpretations/04-0032-5c4a286688.v2.txt", "extractedTextSha256": "6fc426e87a83f632e5880fcc61e36707b7030a56a0021a7d872af7315460c75c", "pageCount": 3, "extractionVersion": 2 } ], "caveat": "Interpretations apply regulations to the facts presented and do not create independently enforceable requirements.", "jurisdiction": "US" } ```