May 2018 SPRAY 35
it wasn’t suitable for household use. Which, unless someone was
to start a “freeze your own warts off” business, precluded use of the
money-saving ORM-D Consumer Commodity exception.
Then, a few years later came Poop Freeze. When I share this
example in a presentation or in a training course, at first people think
I’m joking. Poop Freeze is sold to dog owners who have to pick up
their pets’ droppings. Usually, that odious task is not a problem but,
once in while, a dog may have a bowel issue and the droppings aren’t
very solid. Thorough spraying with Poop Freeze renders droppings
hard as rocks and easy to pick up. People buy it and use it and that
is therefore a household use. Even better, it’s the same gas and
same container style as the long-tubed, tissue-freezing product I had
difficulty classifying years previously. Therefore, when the Poop Freeze
product showed me a household use, the ORM-D exception came
back into play for the long-tubed product and my employer started
saving money on its shipments, too.
The freezing products both sold well and eventually the
marketing people decided to sell it overseas. Arrangements
were made to store product in local warehouses, sell in small
numbers to individual customers and resupply in large numbers
via ocean-crossing boats. In the minds of the marketers, shipping
domestically versus shipping internationally was a simple matter of
writing a different delivery address on the documentation. Many
of us know, however, that’s a gross oversimplification, especially
with these two products. For example, there are no Consumer
Commodities in the international ocean transport regulations
(IMDG Code), nor ORM-D nor Class 9, ID8000.
We had a new classifier starting with us and she showed me her
work on the IMDG Code classifications, calling them UN1950,
Aerosols, 2.2 (non-flammable, non-toxic gas). Unfortunately, that’s
not allowable to, from or within the U.S.
It was really a great learning opportunity
for the new classifier, as we compared what
the IMDG Code says about aerosols (gas
“with or without” something else being
pushed out) with what the U.S. 49CFR says
about aerosols (gas for the “sole purpose” of
ejecting something else).
Normally, small differences between
49CFR and international regulations aren’t a
big deal, as the U.S. Dept. of Transportation
(DOT) usually allows us to “just use” the
international regulations. However, for
some unexplained reason, the DOT put
in a special prohibition against the use of
the “aerosol” classification for “lone gas” or
“pure gas” aerosols any time any portion of a
shipment involves the U.S. or U.S. territorial
waters. While both of the “aerosol-style”
containers were ORM-D for U.S. domestic ground shipments,
neither one could be UN1950 Aerosols for international ocean
shipments starting or ending in the U.S.
I learned several things from the whole process, such as how minor
variations in packaging can have major effects upon classifications
and how upper management often thinks our work is much simpler
than it is. However, the most important lesson I learned is that just
because I have (a) gas doesn’t mean I have an aerosol. How about
that? Regulatory Speak (or Bureaucratish or Legalese or whatever they
wrote the regulations in) isn’t the same as plain English. Who knew?
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