Purpose of TDG Regulations:
The Transport
of Dangerous Goods Act is federal legislation designed to regulate
the movement of dangerous goods via roads, rail, air, and ship.
It aims is to ensure that any shipping is done in a manner that
enhances the safety of the person involved in the transport as
well as the general public. In case of accident, emergency officials
can quickly identify the hazard based on the warning placards
displayed on the vehicle.
The Transport
of Dangerous Goods Regulations are the guidelines used to promote
the aims of the Act. The Province of Alberta passed the TDG Act
in 1982 and later adopted the federal TDG regulations. Unfortunately,
these regulations are very detailed and difficult to interpret
for someone who hasn't studied them extensively. Because of this,
the guidelines are being rewritten and will appear in the form
called "Clear Language Regulations" to distinguish them
from the original attempt at codifying these complex issues. These
new regulations should be implemented in 2002 (they are referred
to as the "Friday Postings", a title that already makes
you wonder how successful the authors will be at demystifying
the guidelines!).
Read a short
Primer
(Adobe Acrobat file) on TDG from Transport Canada. Some
plain language summaries of the regulations appear in Safety
Bulletins published by Alberta Infrastructure Department.
These pages give you an overview of the requirements but
do not go into the details of quantities or exemptions.
Requirements
for transporting items that are dangerous goods:
As with the
WHMIS standards, items are considered hazardous if they have certain
properties related to pressure, flammability, toxicity, biohazard
or corrosiveness. If you are transporting items that are considered
to be dangerous goods, then you need to meet certain criteria
in terms of training, packaging, transporting, documenting and
using warning labels. Specifications may differ for transport
via road, rail, ship and air
New
Clear Language Legislation:
(planned 2002):
Although this
makes the interpretation of the regulations substantially easier,
this will not be law until 2002 (or later).
You
can read the proposed text here:
New
requirements for Dangerous Product Container specifications:
(planned 2003):
This legislation
is still being developed and will set standards for the packagings
used to contain dangerous substances
Difference
from WHMIS and other Regulations:
WHMIS is the
Workplace Hazardous Materials Information
System that involves informing all workers about the hazards
that they might encounter doing their jobs. This legislation is
enforced under the Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Act.
The hazard classes are similar but not identical. The use and
transport of radioactive substances is controlled under the Radiation
Protection Act. The diamond-shaped
placards seen on trucks and transport vehicles are required
by the TDG regulations while the hazard symbols on bottles of
chemicals are required by WHMIS.
View the current
TDG regulations at the Transport
Canada site:
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