Getting tough on HAZMAT transportation

By: Staff
Date: 2003-10-01

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More than 1.5 billion tons of hazardous cargo are shipped throughout the United States each year by air, rail, sea and land. These include flammable liquids, pressurized gases, explosives, poisons and radioactive material. Alarmed by concerns that a significant amount of these substances is being shipped illegally, the U.S. government has decided to crack down.

The danger of illegal shipping is not just vulnerability to terrorism. In case of an accident, firefighters and other first responders would be unaware of the presence of the substances and therefore unprepared to deal with the hazards they present.

The government crackdown will target shippers who obtain fraudulent licenses to carry hazardous materials, hide dangerous materials in otherwise safe cargo, or violate safe transportation practices. An example of this danger is the 1996 ValuJet crash in the Florida Everglades which killed 110 people and was blamed on a fire caused by illegal shipment of oxygen generators in the cargo hold. The suspected cause of the crash was oxygen generators in the cargo hold that may have ignited. Despite the crash experience, just a year later, officials in the United States and France were investigating how more than 900 undeclared oxygen generators may have been shipped into the United States aboard two Air France flights.

"We will give no quarter to those who violate hazmat transportation safety requirements," said Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta at a recent news conference. There will be prosecution for transgressors, Mineta stressed, but most of the program will involve more aggressive inspections and more education and training for shipping companies.

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