Interpretation Response #18-0048
Below is the interpretation response detail and a list of regulations sections applicable to this response.
Interpretation Response Details
Response Publish Date:
Company Name: Spectrum Safety, Inc.
Individual Name: James Blute, M.S., CHP
Location State: MA Country: US
View the Interpretation Document
Response text:
October 11, 2018
James Blute, M.S., CHP
Senior Consultant
Spectrum Safety, Inc.
2 Sanford Road
Chelmsford, MA 01824
Reference No. 18-0048
Dear Mr. Blute:
This letter is in response to your March 26, 2018, letter requesting clarification of the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180) applicable to trace amounts of "UN1660, Nitric oxide, 2.3 (poisonous gas)." You reference a letter of clarification previously issued under Reference No. 00-0133 in which this Office determined that 1/47.5 of an atmosphere of nitric oxide under vacuum in an ionization cell inner packaging was not in a quantity and form that would pose an unreasonable risk to health, safety, or property during transportation per package and was, therefore, not subject to the HMR. Specifically, you provide information on a package example and ask if in comparison to Reference No. 00 0133 it constitutes a trace amount of nitric oxide that is not subject to the HMR.
You describe your example package as follows:
- The package is either 1) a glass cuvette surrounded by foam packing material placed in a fiberboard box or 2) a glass cuvette installed inside an instrument with a sealed housing accompanied by an enclosed desiccant drier sachet, surrounded by foam packing material and placed in a fiberboard box.
- Only one glass cuvette is placed in each completed package.
- Each glass cuvette has a volume of 1.7 mL; will be pressurized to 3.62 psig; contains a total weight of 2.4 mg of nitrous oxide; and is leak checked with "UN1046, Helium, compressed, 2.2 (non-flammable gas)."
The HMR do not define "trace amount." However, according to conventional resources, such as the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "trace" means "an amount of a chemical constituent not always quantitatively determinable because of minuteness." PHMSA regulates the transportation in commerce of materials in an "amount and form [that] may pose an unreasonable risk to health and safety or property." See 49 U.S.C 5103, as delegated to PHMSA in 49 CFR 1.97(b).
It is the opinion of this Office, based on the information you provided, that the amount of nitric oxide in the example packages you described will not pose an unreasonable risk to health, safety, or property during transportation per package and, therefore, each constitute a trace amount that is not subject to the HMR.
I hope this information is helpful. Please contact us if we can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
T. Glenn Foster
Chief, Regulatory Review and Reinvention Branch
Standards and Rulemaking Division
1.97(b)