RAIL SAFETY AND SECURITY

Hazmat Contamination Risk: The number of damaged or leaking hazardous materials containers shipped by rail has more than doubled in the past four years. The FRA routinely grants special permission for railroads to transport damaged hazmat containers on mainline tracks to repair facilities. The number of requests from railroads has been steadily increasing over the last 16 years, possibly subjecting rail workers to an unacceptable risk of exposure.

On March 24, 2011, the BLET and six other rail labor unions jointly petitioned the Federal Railroad Administration for enhanced safety standards to protect rail workers and the public from hazmat contamination. The unions are that rail workers who will be working in the vicinity of damaged containers transporting hazmat receive advance notice of such assignment, and that protective gear, including emergency escape breathing apparatus (EEBAs) be provided. The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 required that the FRA publish regulations establishing EEBA Standards. In an April 7, 2011, statement of BLET National Vice President Steve Bruno to the House Subcommittee on Railroad, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, Vice President Bruno expressed the unions’ concerns in this matter and explained the dangers posed to rail workers and the public. He stated that the FRA, in its proposed rulemaking in 2010 required that train crew members on trains carrying toxic by inhalation (TIH) materials be provided with EEBAs, but that the railroads have claimed that complying with this regulation is simply too expensive. Vice President Bruno stated that “once a railroad has an adequate supply of EEBAs available, it will be of little burden to the railroads to provide all employees who are transporting asphyxiants with EEBAs.”