# Northern Air Cargo — Hazardous Materials Safety Interpretation

- **operation:** document
- **citation:** 15-0045
- **title:** Northern Air Cargo — Hazardous Materials Safety Interpretation
- **source type:** guidance
- **agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
- **status:** guidance
- **official:** true
- **published on:** 2015-05-26
- **effective on:** Not available
- **summary:** 15-0045 response to Northern Air Cargo concerning 171.22, 172.101, 173.24, 173.24a.
- **machine formats:** - **json:** https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-15-0045.json
- **markdown:** https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-15-0045.md
- **app url:** https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-15-0045
- **source url:** https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretation%20Files/2015/150045.pdf
**body:**

<<<PAGE 1>>>

U.S. Department
of Transportation
Washington, DC 20590
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE
•Pipeline and Hazardous
Materials Safety
Administration
MAY 2 6 2015
Mr. Mark Smith
Hazardous Materials Instructor
Northern Air Cargo
3900 Old International Airport Rd.
Anchorage, AK 99502
Ref. No.: 15-0045.
Dear Mr. Smith:
This is in response to your letter dated March 5, 2015 requesting clarification of the
Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180) regarding differences in
packaging requirements between the HMR and the International Civil Aviation Organization
Technical Instructions (ICAO TI). In your letter you note that under the HMR, the entries
for "UN1789, Hydrochloric Acid, 8, II" and "UN1500, Sodium Nitrite, 5.1, III" are
assigned special provision(s) in Column (7) of the Hazardous Materials Table (HMT)
prescribing specific packaging provisions not found for these same entries in the
International Civil Aviation Organization Technical Instructions (ICAO TI). You ask if the
HMT, Column (7) special provisions apply to shipments offered in accordance with the
ICAO TI.
Subpart C of Part 171, authorizes shipments made in conformance with various international
standards, including the ICAO TI. Section 171.22(b) provides that a material offered in
accordance with an international standard must be offered for transportation or transported
in conformance with the applicable standard or regulation and must conform to all
applicable requirements of this subpart. However, as required by § 171.22(g) (5), export
shipments prepared in accordance with the ICAO TI must comply with the general
packaging requirements in §§173.24 and 173.24a. In accordance with § 173.24(c)(1), a
packaging is authorized for a hazardous material only if the packaging conforms to
applicable requirements in the special provisions of Column (7) of the §172.101 table.
For other than export shipments, Subpart C does not require that HMT column (7) special
provisions be applied to shipments made in accordance with the ICAO TI unless otherwise
specified. In addition, the materials described in your letter are not specifically indicated in
Subpart C with the requirement to apply the particular special provision, therefore unless
offered for export, the special provisions of Column (7) would not apply.

<<<PAGE 2>>>

I trust this information is helpful. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to
contact this office.
Sincerely,
show. loy
Shane C. Kelley
Acting International Standards Coordinator
Standards and Rulemaking Division

<<<PAGE 3>>>

Wiener
88 | 72.102
Special Provisions
15-0045
NORTHERN AIR CARGO
05 March 2015
U.S. Department of Transportation
PHMSA Office of Hazardous Materials Standards
Attn: PHH-10
East Building
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, D.C. 20590-0001
RE: Seeking clarification to column 7 in 49CFR HMR and applicability to ICAO Technical Instructions
(ICAO TI) shipments.
Example: Using 49CFR, looking at UN1789, Hydrochloric acid, 8, lI, listed in column 7 of the HMT are special
provisions A3 & A6 for air transport. These state:
A3 For combination packagings, if glass inner packagings (including ampoules) are used, they must
be packed with absorbent material in tightly closed metal receptacles before packing in outer
packagings.
A6 For combination packagings, if plastic inner packagings are used, they must be packed in tightly
closed metal receptacles before packing in outer packagings.
Clear if you are shipping under 49CFR.
However, in the ICAO TI, column 7, these provisions do not appear for the same commodity for inner
packagings (it does for PG I material 851 & 855 but not PG II materials) and there are no US variations
listed. The requirements to apply column 7 of the HMT are not found in 171.22-24.
Example: Again, using 49CFR, look at UN1500, Sodium nitrite, 5.1, III. It has a column 7 special provision A29
which forbids 4H1 plastic boxes using inner plastic bags to be transported by aircraft. However, ICAO TI
permits the 4H1 plastic box with an inner plastic bag to be transported even on passenger aircraft.
My question is, do the HMT column 7 variations still apply for a shipment under ICAO?
Sincerely,
Ma21
Mark Smith
Hazardous Materials Instructor
Northern Air Cargo
907-249-5186
907-243-3331
NORTHERN AIR CARGO INC 3900 Old International Airport Rd Anchorage AK 99502
800-727-2141
FAX 907-249-5190
WWW.NORTHERNAIRCARGO.COM
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