{"operation":"document","citation":"05-0245","title":"Samirian Chemicals, Inc. — Hazardous Materials Safety Interpretation","source_type":"guidance","agency":"Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration","status":"guidance","official":true,"published_on":"2006-01-17","effective_on":null,"summary":"05-0245 response to Samirian Chemicals, Inc. concerning 172.704.","machine_formats":{"json":"https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-05-0245.json","markdown":"https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-05-0245.md"},"app_url":"https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-05-0245","source_url":"https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretation%20Files/2005/050245.pdf","body":"<<<PAGE 1>>>\n\nTransportatio\nS. Departme\nWashington, D.C. 20590\n400 Seventh Street, S.W.\nHazardous Materials Safety\nPipeline and\nAdministration\nJAN 17 2006\nMrs. Debbie Andres\nSamirian Chemicals, Inc.\nRef. No. 05-0245\n1999 S. Bascom Ave.\nTower II, Suite 515\nCampbell, CA 95008\nDear Mrs. Andres:\nThis is in response to your September 26, 2005, letter requesting clarification of the Hazardous\nMaterials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180). Specifically, you ask whether the training\nrequirements apply to employees who type addresses on shipping papers.\nFor purposes of the HMR, \"hazmat employee\" means a person who is employed by a hazmat\nemployer and who, in the course of employment, directly affects hazardous materials transportation\nsafety. In the specific scenario you describe, secretaries whose only function includes typing\naddresses on shipping papers while using unaltered templates that were created by a hazardous\nmaterials trained employee are not subject to the training requirements in Subpart H of Part 172. As\ndescribed, these secretaries have no direct involvement in preparing the shipping documentation and\n\"hazmat employees\" under the HMR.\ndo not handle, package, or load/unload hazardous materials for shipment, and therefore are not\nI hope this satisfies your request.\n172.704\n050245\n\n<<<PAGE 2>>>\n\nBAH\nSAMIRIAN\n5172:704\nCHEMICALS INC.\nCAMPBELL, CA 95008\n1999 S BASCOM AVE. TOWER II, SUITE 515\nTraining\nFAX: (408) 516-9646\nTEL: (408) 558-8282\n05-0245\nMr. Edward T. Mazzullo\nDirector, Office of Hazardous Materials Standards\nU.S. DOT/PHMSA (PHH-10)\n400 7th Street S.W.\nWashington, D.C. 20590-0001\nSeptember 26, 2005\nDear Mr. Mazzullo,\nAccording to the enclosed documents that I downloaded from the DOT website, it says that office\nsecretaries who type in hazardous materials descriptions on shipping documents are required to be\nhazardous materials trained even if the description was made by another. Samirian Chemicals, Inc\ntransports hazardous materials. Our office handles our company's shipping documents and the people\nresponsible for typing in the shipping documents use templates. The templates already contain the\nhazardous materials descriptions which were prepared by a hazardous materials trained employee. Our\noffice secretaries do not change the description, they only type in the addresses required on the\ndocuments.\nMy concern is that I have received conflicting reports from our own hazardous materials trained\nemployee and the Hazardous Materials Information Center phone line regarding this matter. Our\nhazardous materials trained employee says that those responsible for the shipping documents should\nbe trained, but your Information phone line said that we do not need hazardous material training\nbecause the office secretaries are not deciding on the actual description. I am a little wary of that\nadvice because the person I spoke to was not aware of the document I have enclosed. The enclosed\ndocument, which I obtained from your website, states that we need training if we are typing in the\nmaterials description \"at the direction of another, item by item\". I am concerned that the difference\nbetween using a template and typing in a description \"at the direction of another, item by item\" is\npurely semantic.\nI would appreciate it if you would clarify our hazardous materials training responsibilities. We\ncurrently have a conflict of opinion in our office regarding this matter. I would need a clarification in\nwriting on our training duties in order to resolve this issue. Please contact me at the (408) 558-8282 or\nemail at debbie@samirian.com if you have any questions. Thank you for your time.\nSincerely,\nDebbie Andres\nEnclosure: 2","truncated":false,"body_characters":3687}