Pursuant to 49 CFR 172.600 a shipper of a hazardous material is required to provide emergency response information to the carrier prior to the HazMat’s transportation. The only exception to this regulation is for shipments of HazMat that do not require a shipping paper and for materials properly classified as an ORM-D. In order to correctly provide this information you must know what emergency response information is required for a shipment of a hazardous material.
The requirements for the emergency response information are found in 49 CFR 172.602 which indicates that the term “emergency response information” means information that can be used in the mitigation of an incident involving hazardous materials and, as a minimum, must contain the following information:
- The basic description and technical name of the hazardous material.
- Immediate hazards to health;
- Risks of fire or explosion;
- Immediate precautions to be taken in the event of an accident or incident;
- Immediate methods for handling fires;
- Initial methods for handling spills or leaks in the absence of fire; and
- Preliminary first aid measures.
This information must be printed legibly in English and available for use away from the package containing the hazardous material.
The information must be presented on one of the following documents:
- On the shipping paper.
- In a document, other than a shipping paper, that includes both the basic description and technical name of the HazMat (eg. the Material Safety Data Sheet or Safety Data Sheet).
- Related to the information on a shipping paper, in a separate document (eg. an emergency response guidance document) in a manner that cross references the description of the hazardous material on the shipping paper with the emergency response information contained in the document.
Once provided by the shipper it must be maintained by the carrier in the same manner as the shipping paper. The emergency response information must be immediately accessible to the drivers of motor vehicles for use in the event of a HazMat incident.
And it’s not just for HazMat carriers. Each operator of a facility where a hazardous material is received, stored or handled during transportation, shall maintain the emergency response information whenever the hazardous material is present so that it is immediately accessible to facility personnel in the event of a hazardous material incident.
The emergency response information is one part of the emergency information a shipper must provide to the carrier, the other is the 24-hour emergency response phone number. Learn about both of these and a lot more at my HazMat Employee training.