Hazardous Materials in Transportation PDF

Chapter 2 : Hazardous Materials in Transportation Hazardous materials A hazardous material (or Hazardous for short) is defined as any substance or material capable of causing harm to people, property, or the environment. Some examples for Hazardous: Gasoline Diesel Chemicals Nuclear propert...

Chapter 2 : Hazardous Materials in Transportation Hazardous materials A hazardous material (or Hazardous for short) is defined as any substance or material capable of causing harm to people, property, or the environment. Some examples for Hazardous: Gasoline Diesel Chemicals Nuclear properties Explosives Classifications of Hazardous 1. Class 1: Explosives 2. Class 2: Gases 3. Class 3: Flammable liquids 4. Class 4: Flammable solids 5. Class 5: Oxidizers and organic peroxides 6. Class 6: Toxic materials and infectious substances 7. Class 7: Radioactive materials 8. Class 8: Corrosive materials 9. Class 9: Miscellaneous dangerous goods THE CAUSE, SIGNIFICANCE, AND MODE OF HAZARDOUS SHIPMENTS The locations of the demand for hazardous materials are normally not next to the locations of the supply and the locations for disposal of Hazardous wastes. Transportation is required to ship the hazardous materials from the supply locations to the demand locations and from the demand location to the disposal locations. Because of constraints of geographical locations and cost, hazardous materials are not restricted to transport by only one mode, such as truck, rail, air, water, or pipeline, but may be transported by more than one mode. THE CAUSE, SIGNIFICANCE, AND MODE OF HAZARDOUS SHIPMENTS The number of hazardous shipments depends on the size of a country and its level of industrialization The causes of incidents while transporting hazardous materials include: 1. human errors 2. packing failures 3. the inadequate maintenance of transport vehicles Among these causes, human errors seems to be the single greatest factor in all hazardous MULTIPLE PARTIES AND MULTIPLE OBJECTIVE HAZARDOUS SHIPMENT Hazardous transportation involves multiple parties, such as shippers, carriers, packaging manufacturers, freight forwarders, consignees, insurers, governments, and emergency responders. Each has a different role in safely moving hazardous materials from their origins to their destinations; there are often multiple handoffs of hazardous materials from one party to another during transport. MULTIPLE PARTIES AND MULTIPLE OBJECTIVE HAZARDOUS SHIPMENT Carriers aim at selecting lowest cost routes for shipment. These routes may pass through highly populated areas. If an incident occurs on these routes, the surrounding population can be highly affected. Therefore, the government aims at designating allowable routes that reduce the impact of incidents. This objective is different from that of individual carriers. The government is also required to deal with the public opposition that can be due to public assessment of risks, equity concerns, and the fears of terrorist attacks on hazardous materials vehicles. Hazardous Employees Load, unload and handle hazardous materials. Operate the vehicle that will be used to transport the hazardous materials. Likely to be exposed to hazardous materials if there is an accident Recognizing hazardous materials Read the container labels Read material safety data sheets Identify the hazard class Identify packaging group Become familiar with common hazardous materials Read Labels and Placards Identifying packaging group You must know how to identify packaging groups, which are assigned according to their shipping name and hazard class and indicate the degree of danger the material presents. Here are the ratings: I = Great Danger II = Medium Danger III = Minor Danger Reading Labels and Placards Read warning labels on all containers as they contain vital information Make sure the labels match hazard class and division Ensure placards are properly placed on transport vehicles Placards must be located on all 4 sides of the vehicle RISK MANAGEMENT Risk management is the systematic application of policies, practices and resources to the assessment and control of risk affecting human health and safety and the environment. Hazard, risk and benefit/cost analysis are used to support development of risk reduction options, program objectives, and prioritization of issues and resources. Performance measures are monitored to support performance evaluation. Risk management has four key elements: regulations, compliance, exemptions, and mitigation Risk Regulations The objectives of introducing regulations are to Provide safety for workers and the public Protect property and the environment Minimize cost to the public industry and government Minimize economic and social disruption Compliance Ensuring that industry and the public are aware of risks and regulations to control risks can be done by: Outreach Training Information dissemination Enforcement Exemptions Exemptions are alternative risk-based regulations to allow rapid implementation of new technologies and more efficient transportation operations. They provide relief from regulations when exceptions to the rule are allowed for special circumstances. They are granted when an alternative is demonstrated to present a level of safety (risk) equivalent to that provided by the regulations. They are granted on a case-by-case basis. Mitigation Mitigation aids exist to reduce the impact of incidents on affected people and injuries. For example, the Handbook of Chemical Hazards Analysis Procedures and the Automated Resource for Chemical Hazard Incident Evaluation (ARCHIE) are risk analysis tools to support emergency preparedness and response planners. Risk Assessment Risk Assessment Identify possible accident scenarios Estimate undesirable consequences (injuries, fatalities, property damages, etc.) Identify the mostly likely events and most severe consequences for further analysis and routing planning ROUTING Routing is a problem for hazardous carriers as well as the government. The government requires determining which routes and which lanes the Hazardous carriers can use during a particular time period based on the following factors: 1. Types and quantities of hazardous 2. Results of consultations 3. Route continuity 4. Effects on commence 5. Delays in transportation 6. Accidents’ history 7. Emergency response capability 8. Terrain considerations 9. Alternative route availability 10. Congestion HAZARDOUS FACILITY LOCATION The locations of hazardous facilities determine the origin and destination of a hazardous transportation route. Hence, to reduce the total risk in a region, the hazardous facility locations must be chosen carefully. This decision can be considered with the routing decision simultaneously. The related problem is called the combined hazardous facility location and routing problem, which is to find the optimal number, capacity, and location of each Hazardous facility as well as the associated optimal set of routes to be used in serving customers. This problem can be extended to capture shipping schedules, less-than-full truck loads, and other considerations in routing problems.