Issue Brief—Hazmat Transportation Safety
What is hazmat?
Hazmat is short for hazardous material. While many Federal agencies use this term, here it refers to materials designated by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) as posing potential hazards to the public or the environment. Hazmat includes: hazardous substances and wastes, marine pollutants, explosives, flammable or radioactive materials, poisons, and chemicals that can be harmful when swallowed or inhaled (known as toxic inhalation hazards, or TIH.)
Why is hazmat important?
Hazardous materials, including some chemicals, are crucial for the production of many essential products that protect our health and safety and drive our economy. Americans expect clean, safe water from our tap, access to life-saving medications and medical devices, protective equipment and body armor for our sons and daughters in military service and law enforcement, a safe and plentiful food supply, aviation safety systems, computers and phones, energy-saving solar panels, automobile safety systems and child safety seats and more. Hazardous materials help produce the products that fulfill these expectations, and often, there are no acceptable, non-hazardous substitutes that ensure equal safety and performance.
Why must hazmat be transported?
Typically, the production of chemicals and other hazmat requires a combination of resources, raw materials and electrical power. Manufacturing facilities generally are located where these resources are accessed, but customer facilities that use hazmat are often located somewhere else. For example, ethylene oxide is a versatile industrial chemical used to make fiberglass, synthetic fibers and anti-freeze, among other important products. It is also used to sterilize medical equipment and instruments when they are manufactured and again, in hospitals. But it is made in only 11 domestic facilities and must be transported to thousands of facilities.
How is hazardous material transported?
The majority of hazmat travels by truck, with rail and water (including barges) also playing a crucial role. In some cases, hazardous chemicals are used where they are produced, within the same fence line, and transported by short-distance pipelines. For all modes of transportation, hazmat shipping is governed by strict DOT rules.
How safe is hazmat transportation?
Hazmat transportation is very safe, and rail transportation has a strong safety record. According to DOT, approximately 2.1 billion tons of hazmat are shipped each year in the United States. From 1998 to 2007, DOT reports there were 141 hazmat transportation-related fatalities, roughly 14 per year. Of these, 124 deaths were on the highways and 17 were rail-related. The Association of American Railroads reports 99.99 percent of the approximately 1.7 million carloads of hazardous materials shipped by rail each year reach their destination safely, and accident rates have declined 88 percent since 1980.
To ensure safe hazmat transportation, Congress established a comprehensive, national system, and required DOT to create and enforce rigorous standards. Today, more than 20 federal laws and numerous state and local statutes regulate the transport of hazardous materials. Recognizing that safety requires an ongoing partnership between government, producers and transportation companies, industry has undertaken significant initiatives on its own. The chemical and transportation industries have invested – and continue to invest—billions of dollars in new technologies, training and safety systems, including safer tank cars.
In addition, for more than 40 years, government, shippers and transporters have worked together to train emergency responders and help mitigate potential transportation incidents. Chemical companies and railroads created TRANSCAER®, a national outreach program to educate and train emergency responders in rail communities, and since 1971, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) has operated CHEMTREC®, a 24/7 hotline for hazmat incident responders.
How is safety increased?
While the nation’s hazmat transportation system is safe, producers, shippers and the government continually strive to make it safer. Within the last two years, the Departments of Homeland Security and Transportation have implemented more than half-a-dozen new regulations and programs to enhance the security of hazmat production, transportation and use.
For example, in January 2009, DOT issued a new rule to improve the crash-worthiness of railroad tank cars used to transport chlorine and ammonia. The result of a cooperative effort by the federal government, shippers, carriers and other stakeholders, this rule requires new tank cars to be more puncture resistant and to utilize stronger fittings to prevent tampering and accidental discharges.
In addition, ACC and the Chlorine Institute worked with DOT and the railroads to develop new regulations to strengthen tank cars and reduce the likelihood of accidental chemical releases. Because chemical companies own or lease the tank cars in which they ship critical materials, ACC President Cal Dooley noted, “the willingness of our members to support new investments in safety is a hallmark of this industry’s commitment to continuous safety and performance improvement.”
With chemical industry support, Congress passed legislation requiring new rail technology—Positive Train Control Systems—for trains that carry TIH materials and ordered DOT and the rail lines to analyze routing to further reduce any rail transportation risk to urban populations. Ongoing safety improvements also include better training for operators and drivers, improved safety equipment on vehicles, and rules that ensure transportation workers have sufficient rest to perform safely.
In short, hazmat transportation safety reflects an ongoing process of continual improvement across all modes. The safety partnership between government, transportation companies and the chemical industry continues to play a leading role in protecting the public.