# Mr. Tae Kim — Hazardous Materials Safety Interpretation **Citation:** 11-0108 **Type / status:** guidance / guidance **Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration **Effective:** Not stated **Published:** 2011-07-15 11-0108 concerning 173.168. ## Document text <<>> U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE Washington. DC 20590 JUL 152011 Mr. TaeKim 9671 Irvine Center Drive Koll Center II - Building 6 Irvine, CA 92618 Reference No.: 11-0108 Dear Mr. Kim: This responds to your May 6, 2011 email requesting clarification of the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180) applicable to the use and packaging of a chemical oxygen generator (COG). Specifically, you request written confirmation that the manner in which you are preparing and packaging your insulated handheld COG is in compliance with the HMR. You also indicate in your email that you received verbal confirmation from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's (PHMSA) Hazardous Materials Information Center (HMIC) that your packaging is in compliance with the HMR. In your incoming email, you describe a scenario in which you purchased a COG whose design has been approved by the Associate Administrator of the PHMSA. In addition, in your incoming email, you included a document from the manufacturer of the packaging used to initially transport the COG which states the packaging that contains the COG has been successfully tested in accordance with § 173.168. Subsequently, you modified the COG by adding insulation to facilitate handheld use, and then repackaged the modified COG in the originally-tested and approved packaging. However, you modified the approved original packaging configuration by removing some of the inner packaging to accommodate the increased size of the modified insulated COG. Based on the original approval of the COG and the descriptions, pictures and documentation you provided with your incoming email.itis the opinion of this Office that the modified insulated COG no longer meets the original approval for the COG and, thus, would require submittal for approval from the Associate Administrator of PHMSA in order to be in shipped in compliance with the HMR. Furthermore, it is the opinion of this Office <<>> that the packaging design you modified deviates signifiGantly enough from the originallytested package design that the modified packaging would need to be subjected to the testing requirements described in § 173.168 in order to be shipped in compliance with the HMR. I hope this satisfies your inquiry and apologize for any misunderstanding in the response you received from the HMIC. Please contact us if we can be of further assistance. Sincerely, T. Glenn Foster Chief, Regulatory Review and Reinvention Branch Standards and Rulemaking Division <<>> Drakeford, Carolyn (PHMSA) From: INFOCNTR (PHMSA) Sent: Monday, May 09, 2011 11 :28 AM To: Drakeford, Carolyn (PHMSA) Subject: FW: Request for formal letter of interpretation Attachments: DAe-MPL-0102_2009 _091006. pdf; image001.jpg Hi Carolyn, The caller below requested a formal letter of interpretation. He previously spoke with Andrew Eckenrode and Adam Lucas in the Info Center. Thanks, Victoria Victoria Lehman Hazmat Information Center (HMIC) http://phmsa.dot.gov/hazmat/info-center (2132) 366-11335 From: Tae Kim [mailto:tkim@ppp.aero] Sent: FridaYI May 061 2011 4:41 PM To: PHMSA HM InfoCenter Cc: Emmanuel Fantuzzi; Francois Vigier; Gerald White; Francisco Castro; William Somsak Subject: Request for formal letter of interpretation Hazmat Interpretations, We at Pacific Precision Products request written confirmation that our interpretations for shipping Chemical Oxygen Generators are accurate. We purchase approved chemical oxygen generators then inSUlate them for handheld usage. We plan to ship the insulated chemical oxygen generators in the approved shipping container that we received them in; assuming the shipping containers are not damaged. The shipping containers will be marked as chemical oxygen generators. We cut out some of the inner packaging to accommodate the larger insulated generators. Attached is a letter of conformance for the shipping container from the generator manufacturer. The tested packaging consists of a standard cardboard box coated with glass fiber liners inside. Our understanding as well as that of the hazardous materials information center representative, Andrew, and his supervisor we contacted @ 800-467-4922, was that we did not require any additional testing or approvals. We are shipping approved chemical oxygen generators in packaging that is compliant to Generator Hazardous Goods Packaging to the Requirements of 49 CFR § 173.168 Chemical Oxygen Generators. The insulated, handheld case could be considered inner packing for the shipping container. Please contact me if you require any additional information in order to give us written confirmation that our interpretations for shipping Chemical Oxygen Generators are accurate. Unless we hear otherwise from you, we will begin shipping the units as described on 5/10/11. Thank you for your support. 1 <<>> Best regards, Tae Kim Sr. Project Engineer / ~ c~~".~J PiRECISlm'~: PRODUCTS 9671 Irvine Center Drive Koll Center II - Building 6 Irvine,CA 92618 Phone: 949-727-3844 ext 202 E-mail: tkim@ppp.aero 2 <<>> 1/-/J/bE ~k~="'~==' '.' "" = ~~-= " - ..-. ~".~ , .. DAe ;v ""., _. ¥Hn•••• . SYSTEMS AEROSPACE • DAe Systems GmbH, D-23560 LUbeck To whom it may concern Dept. Name: Office of Airworthiness Harald Friedrichs Head of Department Tel.: +49 - 451 - 4093-3758 Telefax: +49 - 451 - 4093-4488 Ref.: DAe-MPL-0102l2009 Date: October 6th , 2009 Ref.: Compliance of Generator Hazardous Goods Packaging to the Requirements of 49 CFR § 173.168 Chemical Oxygen Generators Hereby DAe Systems GmbH confirms that the packagings (PNR 8713304-01 or 8713305-01) used for transportation of chemical generator families E63237, E63337; E63320, -30, -40; E63420, -30, -40; E71240, E72220, -30, -40; E71720, -30, -40 as well as E74020; -30, -40 comply with the requirements set forth in 49 CFR § 173.168 Chemical Oxygen Generators. The packaging consists of a standard cardboard box coated with glass fibre liners inside. The required tests, as there are: Generator Drop Test Flame Penetration Test Thermal Resistance Test Actuation in Packaging Test etc. have been successfully performed and demonstrated the compliance to 49 CFR § 173.168. Test results were documented and are kept on file at DAe Systems GmbH. Questions regarding the packaging may be addressed to the contact named below: Contact Data DAe Systems GmbH Office of Airworthiness Mr. Harald Friedrichs RevalstraBe 1 23560 Lubeck I Germany Tel.: +49 451 4093 3758 Fax: +49451 40 88 E-Mai : har _fri richs@daesystems.aero DAe Systems GmbH Dr. Detlev Degenhardt Director Engineering OAe Syslems GmbH Revsls!L 1 23560 Lubeck Telelon +49 (0) 45114093-0 Telefax +49 (0) 451 4093-4466 aerospace@daesyslems,aerowww.daesys!ems.aero Ust.-ldNr.: DE 135093955 Oresdnar Bank AG, Lubeck Konlo-Nr.: 0311 081 600 BLZ 230 800 40 IBAN DE21 2308 0040 0311 061600 S.W.I.F,T·Code: ORES DE FF 230 Sitz der Gesellschaft: Lilbeck Amlsgerichl LIlbeck HRB 2919 GescMftsfilhrer: Dipl.-Ing. Rail Fischer ## Provenance - Official: Yes - Source: - Source ID: `phmsa` - SHA-256: `eef726d041d6254cee7429d3a678fc77ef165c981540699576ca6d0ed56f8dc0` - Retrieved: 2026-08-20T00:59:31.977Z - Exported: 2026-08-22T19:16:25.490Z - Document slug: `phmsa-interpretation-11-0108` ### Source metadata ```json { "materialSubtype": "interpretation", "interpretationArea": "hazardous_materials", "representation": "full_text_from_official_pdf", "companies": [], "individuals": [ "Mr. Tae Kim" ], "refIds": [ "11-0108" ], "catalogDates": [ "2011-07-15" ], "catalogParts": [ 173 ], "catalogRowCount": 1, "sourceRecordUrls": [ "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/node/63641" ], "linkedAttachmentUrls": [], "unavailableResponseUrls": [], "duplicateRepresentationUrls": [], "citedSections": [ "173.168" ], "catalogPageUrls": [ "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/regulations/title49/section/173168" ], "pdfUrls": [ "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretations/2011/110108.pdf" ], "representations": [ { "viewUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretations/2011/110108.pdf", "detailUrl": null, "detailHtmlPath": null, "pdfUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretations/2011/110108.pdf", "pdfArtifactPath": "data/sources/phmsa-interpretations/11-0108-c45eff1a61.pdf", "pdfArtifactSha256": "1e53317e754fe9963996aebcb24099301be25be0e45e91cc1e6e67cd93179bdd", "extractedTextPath": "data/sources/phmsa-interpretations/11-0108-c45eff1a61.v2.txt", "extractedTextSha256": "9efe94db7b7a59c8ac57af2d75ec8f23657b59f9f4832fc1133978eaf935e2bb", "pageCount": 5, "extractionVersion": 2 } ], "caveat": "Interpretations apply regulations to the facts presented and do not create independently enforceable requirements.", "jurisdiction": "US" } ```