As a company that utilizes Special Permit 9275 to ship small quantities of ethyl alcohol we wanted to inform you of our latest efforts and ask for your assistance.

As you may remember, COSTHA submitted a petition to the US DOT to incorporate the long-standing exceptions provided by this permit into the hazardous materials regulations. This petition has been accepted by the agency and is under review. We also initiated a legislative outreach program and we are pleased to say that the following language is currently in the draft hazmat reauthorization bill. Both of these are mid-to-long term potential solutions for this situation.

"Ethyl Alcohol Regulation.  The bill would require PHMSA to conduct a study on whether it is necessary to continue to designate any amount or form of finished pharmaceutical, finished cosmetic, or similar product containing ethyl alcohol as a hazardous material under section 5103(a) of title 49, United States Code and to report back to Congress within one year.

The study conducted under this subsection would evaluate the history, severity, and costs of any incidents in transporting such products; the risk posed by such products in commercial packaging in current use in transportation; the risk associated in transporting the products without any specific packaging required by any applicable special permit or regulation; the costs to the industry of designating the products as hazardous material, including the cost of regulation, as compared with the costs of incidents that have occurred or are probable with regard to the products; and include a summary of comments from industry stakeholders and the public on whether there is a need for continued designation of such products as hazardous material."

However, the new marking requirement (contains ethyl alcohol) is scheduled to go into effect September 2012 and we need an immediate solution to avoid this expensive and unnecessary new requirement.

COSTHA attorney Rick Schweitzer has drafted a petition to modify the special permit but we need your help. (Click here) Please take a moment to read the petition and and let us know if your company would be willing to add their signature. The more signatories we have, the stronger the message. If you also have some information about the length of time you have been using the permit, average number of annual shipments, number of known incidents, average size of the inner package, etc. that would also be very helpful.

We believe there is a good possibility that the US DOT will see fit to grant our petition to rescind the marking requirement currently in the special permit (Contains ethyl alcohol) but we need everyone to support the petition. Simply send us an e-mail and we can add your name to this important petition. lara@costha.com

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Lara

COSTHA

7803 Hill House Court

Fairfax Station, VA 22039

Phone: 703/451-4031  Fax: 703/451-4207
mail@costha.com  www.costha.com