Hazmat · Placarding
A load includes a poisonous material described on the shipping paper as a poison inhalation hazard, in a quantity comfortably under the second table's weight figure. What placarding does federal regulation call for?
Explanation
A material carrying the poison inhalation hazard shipping description gets a POISON INHALATION HAZARD or POISON GAS placard, whichever fits, in addition to whatever placard the general rule already requires for it. Quantity is beside the point here, because the weight exception that lets small amounts of second-table materials go unplacarded expressly does not apply to materials this subsidiary hazard rule covers. The word to hold onto is addition: the subsidiary placard is layered on top of the primary one rather than swapped for it, although the rule does say the subsidiary placard need not be duplicated. A parallel provision works the same way for a subsidiary hazard of being dangerous when wet, which brings DANGEROUS WHEN WET placards on each side and each end on top of the placards otherwise required. The three wrong options each drop a placard that is owed, by treating the weight figure as universal, by substituting the subsidiary placard for the primary one, or by reaching for a combined placard that is not what this rule provides.
Source: 49 CFR 172.505(a)
Related Placarding questions
- Hazard classes that appear in the second of the two placard tables generally need placards only once the load passes a weight figure. What is that figure, and what does the exception leave untouched?
- When may a DANGEROUS placard stand in for the separate placards a mixed load would otherwise need, and what cancels the substitution?
- A bulk packaging that had to be placarded has now been emptied of its hazardous cargo. When may the placards come off?
- You find that your vehicle is not placarded the way the regulations require for the hazardous material on board. When may it be moved anyway?