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30 YEARS AGO A LOOK BACK TO JULY 1992
THE JULY 1992 number of HCB was not badged as a North American issue in particular, as it is today, but it still led with a report from contributor Susan Saltzman on discussions at the HMAC Annual Conference, which had taken place in May in Arlington, Virginia. These days HMAC is DGAC and its annual event has shifted to the fall but in those days it was the main event for learning about North American regulations. And the 1992 conference generated a significant surprise. Mexico, which had hitherto only regulated rail transport in its domestic affairs and even that not very stringently, announced that it was to adopt the provisions in the US Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) for road transport in the country. The impetus for this change of heart appeared to have come from the deadly pipeline explosion in Guadalajara in April, which killed more than 300 people – although quite why a pipeline incident should lead to road regulations remains unclear. In his comment piece, editor Mike Corkhill wondered why the Mexican authorities had not take the step after the even more deadly LPG explosion in Mexico City in 1984. He also noted that there was to be a very short implementation period, with industry given only six months to comply, and pondered if this – not unprecedented – kneejerk reaction by the regulators was going to lead to good regulation. Mexico was not alone in taking such steps, though its counterparts in Canada had allowed some time for reflection after the Mississauga train derailment in 1979, which released a large cloud of chlorine and necessitated the evacuation of nearly a quarter of a million people.
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That incident had also spurred the nation’s chemical industry to clean up its act and, in order to demonstrate that to the public, had come up with the idea of ‘Responsible Care’. That concept was quickly taken up south of the border and by 1992 the US Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA) made adherence to the programme a condition of members. With its own regulatory regime more well established, the US was at the time keeping up to date with technical developments and, as Al Roberts, associate administrator at the Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA, the forerunner of PHMSA), explained, one priority was to get those new-fangled IBCs covered in HMR. The July 1992 issue also contained a feature on IBCs, mainly the metal units still then widely used. Two other rulemakings going through the regulatory mill involved the idea of adopting IMO’s requirements for marine pollutants for all transport modes in the US, and the first appearance in HMR of provisions requiring the training of personnel involved in the movement and handling of hazardous materials. On his retirement from RSPA some years later, Al Roberts took up the invitation to become president of HMAC, so he could continue to use his expertise in the field; in 1992, Susan Saltzman had also recently retired from her long-standing role as hazardous materials consultant at the Du Pont Company and had started offering her own expertise as a consultant to the wider industry. Her efforts to improve regulatory compliance were recognised during the HMAC Annual Conference when she was named recipient of that year’s George L Wilson Award.
