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

- **operation:** document
- **citation:** 62 FR 34667
- **title:** Hazardous Materials: Shipping Description and Packaging of Oxygen Generators; Delay of Effective Date, Technical Amendments and Corrections
- **source type:** rulemaking
- **agency:** Research and Special Programs Administration
- **status:** historical
- **official:** true
- **published on:** 1997-06-27
- **effective on:** Not available
- **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.
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- **source url:** https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/1997/06/27/97-16778/hazardous-materials-shipping-description-and-packaging-of-oxygen-generators-delay-of-effective-date
**body:**

Federal Register, Volume 62 Issue 124 (Friday, June 27, 1997) [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] ======================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
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