Document 6RR4XbRvXgVmqrba98NkjeZOg

OSFITI E KELLER JEROME II HECKMAN CHARLES M MEEHAN WILLIAM H BORCHESANI JR ROBERT R TIERNAN WAYNE V BLACK DAVID L HILL MARTIN W BERCOVICI ^ rrTFIt M NJMKOV JOSEFn F HADLEY CAROLE C HARRIS PETER THOMAS SifITH MICHAEL F MORROVE LAW OFFICES Keller and Heckman 1130 17th STREET N W SUITE 1000 WASHINGTON D C 2003 6 March 31, 1975 TELEPHONE 202 206 2700 CABLE ADDRESS KELMAN Mr John Stender Occupational Safety & Health Administration Department of Labor Washington, D C 20210 Re Standard for Exposure to Vinyl Chloride Request for Interpretation and Other Relief Dear Mr Stender The purpose of this letter is to follow-up on a meeting held Thursday, March 20, of Mssrs Flowers and McClure and Mrs Ryer of the Staff of the Occupational Safety and Healtn Administration and Mssrs Thomas Smith, B F Goodrich Chemical Company Grant Arnold, Ethyl Corporation Philip Cupertino Stauffer Chemical Company, and the undersigned on be half of the Committee on Distribution of the Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc The subject of this meeting was the implementation of the 0SHA Standard for Exposure to Vinyl Chloride 1/ with respect to la beling and other transportation related functions As we are certain you are aware, the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) is the national trade association of the industry and represents approximately 99 percent of the production of vinyl chloride (VCM) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) m this country The Committee on Distribution is a service committee within SPI and is charged with the responsibility to study and work toward 1/ 29 C F R 1910 93q C7-V <- . T ^/-/7S OCC 014256 Mr John Stender March 31 1975 Page Two improvement of the function of physical distribution of materials and products T Standard for Exposure to Vinyl Chloride is accordu of extreme impor tance to the Committee on Disc^ibution due to its impact upon materials handling, transportation equip ment, packaging and labeling LABELING The Committee on Distribution has adopted a program for the labeling of transportation equipment and packaged materials relative to the requirements for container labeling of subsection (1) of the Standard We respectfully request your concurrence with our inter pretation that this program fulfills those requirements and we further request that OSHA field personnel be advised that the labeling program described herein sa tisfies compliance responsibilities of those employers whose employees may be handling VCM and PVC materials The industry believes that a uniform approach to marking and labeling is desirable m order, first, that transportation companies and carrier employees will become accustomed to recognizing the prescribed warnings irrespective of the company making shipment In this regard, carriers are accustomed to standardization m hazardous materials regulations and a uniform industry approach would thereby facilitate not only _ndustry but also common carrier compliance obligations Secondly, a uniform approach would be effective m warning em ployees of the fabricator segment of the industry who will become accustomed to seeing the warnings m similar fashion and location irrespective of the producer or plant wherein the shipment originates Finally uniformity will enable OSHA inspectors to impartially judge compliance and effect uniform enforcement, thereby assuring that all producers are treated m a similar manner, and further assuring that the same standard of compliance will be applied to a shipment at origin by one inspector as at destination by another The provisions of subparagraph (1) of the Stan dard simply require that containers of vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride shall be legibly labeled' wirh the OCC 014257 Mr John Stender March 31 1975 Page Three warning statements designated tnerein In formulating the program described below the Committee on Distri bution has considered the intent of the Standard that employees handling vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride materials shall be reasonably apprised of the warnings prescribed by the Standard m view of the handling and exposure at all levels, e g , producer, fabricator, carrier and warehouseman and the Committee's deliber ations further took into account the specific charac teristics pertaining to each container for marking purposes Vinyl Chloride Vinyl chloride may be packaged for transportation m bulk m tank cars. m bulk m tank trucks. or m cylin ders 2/ The practices and requirements of transportation for each mode mandate specific consideration With respect to tank car movements, the industry has elected to employ option (n) of subsection (1) (5) of the Standard to mark Cancer-Suspect Agent m conjunction with the DOT placard requirement Associated with this letter and identified as Exhibit A is a DOT placard utilized for VCM movements as amended to reflect the OSHA-prescribed warning Modification of the placard to accommodate the OSHA warning has been assented to by the Federal Railroad_ Administration of the Department oTT~Transportation3/ This approach presents all transportation safety informa tion in one location, and railroad employees are accus tomed to looking to the placard for such information Moreover, this approach appears to fulfill the intent of the Standard as described m the preamble, as follows Since labeling or placarding that is in compliance with the U S Department of 2/ For waterborne movement, the carcinogenic hazard of VCM will be regulated by the Department of Transpor tation See, CGD 74-167, 39 Fed Reg 26752 3/ Letter dated November 21 1974, from Mr W F Hall for Mac E Rogers Associate Administrator Office of Safety Federal Railroad Administration of the Depart ment of Transportation, addressed to Mr S Kuzma, Allied Chemical Corporation OCC 014258 Mr John Stender March 31 1975 Page Four Transportation regulations (49 CFR Part 173, Subpart H) already warns of the fire hazard, only a statement concerning the carcinogenic hazard need be added to the Department of Transportation labels 4/ The movement of vinyl chloride by tank truck is currently very limited m scope, involving one VCM producer and a single motor carrier It is the position of the Committee on Distribution, and of the parties particularly involved m this movement that option (l) of subparagraph (1)(5) is preferable It is intended that the full warning statement 5/ will be applied by a label stencil or tag, as illustrated by Exhibit B / to this letter, m the vicinity of all hatches and al1 outlets The producer and customer personnel handling tEe ma'tenal at both origin and destination will, of course, be familiar with and trained m the handling re quirements of vinyl chloride Additionally, a single driver is responsible for the truck during the entire transportation movement Accordingly it is believed that this system of notification *7ill serve to adequate ly warn all employees who may be anticipated to be within working distance of the vehicle during transportation of the health hazard involved 6/ 4/ 39 Fed Reg 35890, 35895 (Emphasis added) 5/ It is understood that the shipper involved intends to petition for a variance to use the phraseology Flam mable Compressed Gas" in lieu of Extremely Flammable Gas Under Pressure' m order to correlate to DOT hazardous materials terminology 6/ Exhibit 1B-l hereto is a DOT placard used for truck -- movement of vinyl chloride' The nature of this placard and its failure to identify the material m the vehicle do not accommodate modification to include the OSHAprescnbed warning as readily as does the rail placard This distinction, and also differences m the manner of handling tank cars and tank trucks has caused the Com mittee on Distribution to select the labeling of hatches and outlets so to give particular warning to those ac tuallyhandling the product OCC 014259 Mr John Stender March 31, 1975 Page Five With respect to cylinders, which move comparatively infrequently m transportation it is intended to utilize the Cancer-Suspect Agent legendr m lettering one-half the size of the 'Flammable Gas lettering of the DOT required label near the DOT label on the cylinder A sample DOT label is associated here with as Exhibit 1C Polyvinyl Chloride Polyvinyl chloride may be in either powder, pellet or liquid form PVC is moved in bulk m hopper cars, tank cars, hopper trucks and tank trucks and PVC is packaged m bags, bulk boxes and drums With respect to bulk equipment whether rail or motor carrier the Committee on Distribution program calls foi warning with the legend prescribed m subsection (1)(4) of the Stan dard by label, stencil or tag in the vicinity of all hatches and all outlets m the form of Exhibit D to this letter Such a label will serve to give notice of the potential health hazard prior to handling the PVC material Exhibit E to this letter -s a label to be utilized on packaged material This label will be applied to bacjs on the sides or ends, to boxes on each side which bears the product identification, and to drums on the front, l e , near the product identification This ap plication of the warning is intended to be visible when the packages particularly bags are palletized and so may be seen by warehouse personnel and also by employees or fabricators who may be called upon to remove the bags from the pallets for usage Waste Material Contaminated ith Vinyl Chloride It is intended to label waste materials con taminated with vinyl chloride, which move very occasionally m bulk m trucks, vith the labeling prescribed by sub section (1) (3) of the Standard m similar fashion to the label identified as Exhibit D to this letter OCC 014260 Mr John Stender March 31, 1975 Page Six It is respectfully submitted that the fore going labeling program complies with the requirements and intent of the Standard insofar as the responsi bility of all employers e g , producer fabricator, warehouseman and transportation company is concerned with respect to the movement of vinyl chloride and poly vinyl chloride materials and we request your con currence m this interpretation TRANSITION As the direct result of the present state of the economy, many, if rot all, PVC producers find themselves with substantial inventories of packaged ma terials As of December 31 1974 these inventories amounted to approximately 300 million pounds 7/ Such inventories are held at public as well as company ware house facilities The provision of the Standard requiring that containers of polyvinyl chloride must be labeled effective April 1 apparently applies to existing inven tories as well as to newly packaged materials however, whereas newly packaged PVC materials will be labeled m accordance with the program described above, the labeling of each individual package m inventory may be highly impractical By and large, PVC materials are packaged in bags containing 40 or 50 pounds of material and it is common industry practice that such packages are palletized, 50 bags to a pallet Within each pallet the bags are glued or banded together to maintain stability and fa cilitate handling of the palletized unit In consideration of the unitized nature of packaged PVC materials or pallets, it is our interpretation that each palletized unit may be considered to be a container, and accordingly that the requirement of subsectiorf (1) of the Standard may be sa tisfied by the labeling of each palletized unit itself 7/ Source SPI Committee on Resin Statistics, as compiled -- by Ernst & Ernst OCC 014261 Mr John Stender March 31 1975 Page Seven To otherwise interpret the Standard may require that each pallet load be broken down thereby resulting m a weakening of the individual packages as the outer ply of paper glued to the next package, tears as the bags are separated from one another so that labels may be individually applied While the PVC producers do not have a single approach to the labeling of packages during this transi tion period, it is generally intended that labels will be placed on each palletized load in such fashion as to be conspicuous to warehouse and transportation em ployees who will be handling the material Additionally the labels will be so located that the warning will be apparent to employees of fabricators as the bags are removed from the palletized load for use, until the last package has been severed from the pallet It is respectfully submitted that the foregoing approach to labeling during the transition period, and until present inventories are depleted will serve to fulfill the requirement of subsection (1) of the Stan dard at all levels of handling and we further request your concurrence m this interpretation EXPORT Members of SPI's Committee on Distribution have been advised that materials bearing the Cancer-Suspect Agent' label will not be accepted for handling by certain stevedoring companies Moreover, some foreign customers have indicated that they will not accept products bearing this label since they can purchase PVC materials from producers m other countries whic are not labeled m this fashion SPI's statistics show that the export of PVC, amounting to approximately 300 million pounds m 1974, accounts for 21% of all plastic materials exported 8/ 8/ Source SPI Committee on Resin Statistics, as compiled ~~ by Ernst & Ernst OCC 014262 Mr John Stender March 31, 1975 Page Eight SPI is aware that the B F Goodrich Chemical Company has filed a request for an interpretation concerning this matter Considering that (1) the warning is primarily intended for the benefit of employees ac tually working with the PVC material m the fabrication process and that foreign employees are not within the purview of the OSri Act (2) that producer and trans portation employees will be trained m the handling of PVC materials, and (3) that longshoremen and other dock personnel have only occasional and limited exposure m an open air environment to packages of PVC material, the SPI Committee on Distribution supports the B F Goodrich Chemical Company request that the Standard be interpreted as not requiring the labeling of PVC materials in export movement SAMPLES It is common practice within the industry for PVC producers to ship samples of materials to customers, such samples ranging in amount from 5 pounds to one bag consisting of 40 or 50 pounds of product Such samples may be sent by United Parcel Service, parcel post or air freight and are appropriately packaged m outer containers sufficient to withstand the rigors of hand ling As presently constituted the provisions of the Standard, most particularly the monitoring, training labeling and record retention requirements, would apply to the handling of these shipments m equal force as they do to the transportation of a 40,000 pound consign ment Obviously, the burdens of compliance with the Standard would make the handling of such sample shipments economically infeasible for the postal system, UPS or the airlines In view of the nea1 lgible exposure and health hazard presented by the handling of such sample shipments, it is respectfully requested that the Secretary either interpret the Standard so to exclude such trans portation from the scope of subsection (a) (3) or alter natively that the Secretary amend the Standard to exempt from its scope the transportation of PVC m quantities not exceeding 50 pounds Should such an amendment be required, it is submitted that it would constitute a minor amendment within the context of Section 1911 5 of OCC 014263 Mr John Stender March 31, 1975 Page Nine the Regulations Your attention to the foregoing request is very much appreciated Should there be any questions concerning the foregoing matters or should any further information be desired please feel free to commu nicate with the undersigned Very truly yours > '^oiejccw) v cl Assistant General Counsel To the| society of the plastics INDUSTRY, INC Enclosures cc Mr Barry White Mr Grover Wrenn Mr Charles Ray McClure OCC 014264 / u irK Exhibit "B" (Copy OCC 014265 VINYL CHlORIDE TANK CAR PLACARDS' (DOUBLED FACED 10/ X 10/ INCHES ACTUAL SIZE) DANGEROUS PLACARD 4 KEEP LIGHTS AND FIRES AWAY! VINYL CHLOR1DI cancer-suspect agi HANDLE CAREFULLY This car must not be next to a car containing Explosives Avoid contact with leaking acid or corrosive liquid Beware of fumes or vapors' WHEN LA INC IS REMO ED THIS PLAC R MUST BE MOVED OR REVERSED (FRONT SIDE) TO COMPLY WITH OSHA AND DOT REGULATIONS (OVER) OCC 014266 DANGEROUS EMPTY PLACARD (REVERSE SIDE) OCC 014267