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These cards reduce chemical crash hazards
Page 63
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THE DANGERS incurred when chemical tankers are involved in accidents have at last prompted the Home Office to call for the introduction of a hazard warning card scheme in this country. Chemical companies in many foreign countries are already operating voluntary schemes which provide tanker drivers with information about the chemicals they carry and how the drivers, police or public should act in the case of accidents in transit.
Not wishing to introduce statutory legislation to enforce any such scheme, the Home Office has asked the Chemical Industries Association Ltd. to devise a system which would be acceptable to both the chemical industry and hauliers and therefore could be adopted voluntarily by them. So the CIA has been working in co-operation with its West European counterparts "to devise and introduce a unified scheme suitable for national and international traffics on a voluntary basis".
The final details of the scheme and the format of the hazard warning cards will not be completed for some months yet, but they are likely to reflect many of the characteristics of the Dutch scheme which is currently in use on the Continent. It is thought that an existing scheme will be more readily accepted than one which is completely new.
The Dutch cards contain instructions in four languages—French, German, Dutch and English—and give the following information: the name of the cargo; the nature of hazards which the chemical might cause: protective devices to be used against such hazards; and, in larger print, how to act in case of accident during transport and what 'first-aid measures will counteract the effects of the chemical.
There are some 200 chemicals covered by the Dutch scheme, but, because of the different types of chemicals moved in Britain, this will be extended under the scheme now being formulated by the CIA.
The heavy organic chemical division of Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. is already operating a pilot scheme which corresponds to the Dutch system in every aspect except that it covers only 12 chemical products —dimethylamine (anhydrous), acetone, n-butanol, isobutanol, isopropanol, phenol, ethylene oxide, phthalic anhydride (liquid), butadiene, cyclohexane, napthalene and benzene. The hazard card is produced in the form of a wallet, into which the driver's dispatch documents are stapled. On reaching his destination, the driver hands the complete wallet to the customer.
A similar, but less comprehensive system, has been in use in the United States for some time. This entails the use of • a Chem-Card manual which contains hazard cards for 85 chemical substances. It states in the foreword to the manual that it is intended "for ready reference by officials making on-the-spot judgments as to fire fighting and other actions to be taken to protect the public in emergencies involving chemicals in transit by tank truck .. . Each Chem-Card briefly states the hazards of the chemical and makes broad recommendations for action in case of fire, leak or human exposure."
Although the Chem-Card system, devised and published by the American Manufacturing Chemists' Association, has found wide acceptance throughout the USA and in
This English-language section of a Dutch hazard warning card gives accident information and advice to a driver of a chlorine-carrying tanker. The cards produced independently by ICI are of identical design.
other countries, its relatively narrow scope has been criticized and further measures are being considered. A Task Group was set up by the National Fire Protection Association and it has produced recommendations to augment the statutory obligations to which chemical tanker operators are at present subject in the USA.
Chemical tankers, it has reported, should carry in addition to the "Order 69" markings (statutory markings denoting the carriage of dangerous chemicals) a number which would correspond to an entry in a "Manual of Transportation Emergency Guides". This would contain instructions similar to those found on Chem-Cards, but in it chemical substances would be grouped in hazard categories, each guide being designed to cover a range of materials which present similar hazards. These guides would be carried in police cars and fire engines as well as in tanker cabs. .