President
DonaldBossow
Sr Mgr NA Reg Affairs/Global Systems
Diversey, Inc.
First Vice President
Sean Broderick
Senior Manager, Global Govt Relations
Procter & Gamble Distributing LLC
Second Vice President/Treasurer
Dave Madsen
HazMat Analyst
Autoliv ASP, Inc.
Secretary
AmyFischesser
Corporate Hazardous Materials Manager
Sun Chemical Corporation
Executive Committee Member
Robert Heinrich
Transportation Safety Advisor
Novartis Pharmaceuticals
Board of Directors
John D'Aloia
Manager Transportation Compliance
Mary Kay
Jeanette DeGennaro
EHS Compliance Mgr.
Instrumentation Laboratory
Trevor Howard
Mgr Safety/Dangerous Goods Standards
Air Canada
James Jahnke
Sr. Manager Dangerous Goods
Merck and Co.
Richard Lattimer
Consultant-HSE
Eli Lilly and Company
David Littlejohn
Corporate Safety Advisor
FedEx Express
Boyd Stephenson
Director, Hazardous Materials Policy
American Trucking Associations, Inc.
Carrie Wayne
Global Manager, Trans. Safety
Honeywell International
Daniel Wieten
National Mgr Compliance Plan & Admin
Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc.
Jeanne Zmich
Vice President R&D
Labelmaster
General Counsel
RichardSchweitzer, PLLC
RichardSchweitzer, PLLC
Generators which have passed their expiration date must be removed from the aircraft for either refurbishment or disposal. Air operators must comply with the US Department of Transportation (DOT) Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) as well as all US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements related to O2 generators regardless of whether they are returning them to the manufacturer or to a Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facility (TSDF) for disposal or refurbishment.
In Title 49 CFR, §173.168, the HMR provides regulatory requirements for transporting chemical oxygen generators that are not expired. An O2 generator with an explosive or non-explosive means of initiation attached must be approved by the Associate Administrator. The O2 generator must be capable of withstanding a 1.8m drop test and must incorporate a means of preventing accidental activation. Oxygen generators are forbidden for transport on passenger aircraft. When past their expiration date or after they have been expended, the generators are forbidden for transport by passenger and cargo aircraft.
Oxygen generators that are unserviceable are typically expended to release the energy. While this action results in the generator being forbidden for transport by air, it significantly reduces or eliminates the likelihood a dangerous evolution of heat will occur during transport or while in storage. The act of expending is usually done by placing the generator in a 55-gallon drum of water when active. The reaction releases only gaseous oxygen, and no trace chemicals are released into the drum. Even after the generator has been expended the device is treated as a hazardous waste due to the barium oxide left within the generator. For example, one manufacturer’s SDS, Section 13 for an oxygen generator states “Generators must be spent prior to disposal. Due to barium within the generator it is considered a hazardous waste even after it is spent. The spent generator must be disposed of in accordance with all Federal, State and local regulations. “
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)final recommendations on ValuJet flight 592 in 1997 (A-97-64) “Require airplane manufacturers to amend company maintenance manuals for airplanes that use chemical oxygen generators to indicate that generators that have exceededtheir service life should not be transported unless they have been actuated and their oxidizer core has been depleted." This recommendation was supported by the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) in their report on the EQ waste disposal facility fire in Apex, North Carolina. The CSB Safety Advisory No. 2007-I-NC-01-SA issued June 2007 noted “…the need for aircraft maintenance facilities to expend chemical oxygen generators that have exceeded their service life, and for hazardous waste facility operators and shippers to exercise due when handling unspent chemical oxygen generators.”
However, several States, including California, Michigan, Illinois, and New York deem the expending of the generator as treatment of a hazardous waste and therefore require the location to be permitted as a Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility (TSDF). This requirement is extremely costly. To further complicate the issue, some States require a facility to have an air emission permit or include in their Title V Air Permit to activate an oxygen generator for the purposes of pre-disposal functions. The States that require an air permit include California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Because these requirements are costly and require additional actions or responsibilities as a TSDF, shippers may chose the option of shipping the un-expended generators by ground to a disposal facility. As described above, shipping of unexpended generators increases the risk of a dangerous evolution of heat during transport or storage.
COSTHA realizes States have the right to regulate the treatment of hazardous wastes. However, the position that expending an oxygen generator is treatment of a hazardous waste has led to potentially unsafe transportation and storage of oxygen generators. Both the NTSB and CSB recommend expending the generators prior to transport. Therefore, COSTHA requests the EPA recommend States consider the expending of oxygen generators prior to transportation for disposal as other than the treatment of a hazardous waste, or as an acceptable treatment without a TSDF permit.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss these issues further, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
L’Gena Shaffer
Technical Consultant
The Council on Safe Transportation of Hazardous Articles, Inc.
7803 Hill House Court, FairfaxStation, VA 22039 703/451-4031 FAX: 703/451-4207