COMMON SENSE AND THE GREAT COCA COLA® “KILLER CHEMICAL” CORROSIVE SPILL
TRAINING NOTEBOOK
A recent hazardous-materials incident illustrates that a nontraditional approach to handling such matters may best protect the public safety. A truck placarded “CORROSIVE” was being inspected on Interstate 10 when the officer noticed liquid dripping from a drain hole in the trailer. The shipping papers indicated that the vehicle was loaded with 68 drums of a phosphoric acid solution weighing 46,104 pounds.
Hazardous-materials specialists responded and found that the load consisted entirely of 55-gallon drums of Coca Cola® flavoring compound. An interior inspection disclosed that a piece of wood used to block and brace the load had fallen in between two drums. The drums had slipped about a foot sideways inside the restrictive plastic shrink wrap used to keep them upright, and the piece of wood had worn a hole in one of them. The thick product had slowly dribbled out of this small hole but now had stopped flowing.
Under the U.S. Department of Transportation hazardous-materials regulations, the Coca Cola’ Classic’ syrup meets the definition of a corrosive material. The primary constituent causing it to meet this definition is phosphoric acid. The product, therefore, is properly described on hazardous-materials shipping papers as a phosphoric acid solution, corrosive material. United Nations identification number 1805.
The federal regulations. 49 CFR Section 177.821. provide that packages not in proper condition for transportation are forbidden and state the following in part:
(b)Disposition of containers found broken or leaking in transit. When leaks occur in packages or containers during the course of transportation, subsequent to initial loading, disposition of such package or container shall be made by the safest practical means afforded under paragraphs
(c), (d). and (e) of this section.
(c) Repairing or overpacking packages.
(1) Packages may be repaired when safe and practicable, such repairing to be in accordance with the best and safest practice known and available.
(2) Packages of hazardous materials that are damaged or found leaking during transportation, and hazardous materials that have spilled or leaked during transportation, may be forwarded to destination or returned to the shipper in a salvage drum in accordance w ith the requirements of section 173.3 of this subchapter.
(d) Transportation of repaired packages. Any package repaired in accordance with the requirements of paragraph (c)(1) of this section…may be transported to the nearest place at which it may safely be disposed of only in compliance with the following requirements:
(1) The package must be safe for transportation.
(2) The repair of the package must be adequate to prevent contamination of or hazardous admixture with other lading transported on the same motor vehicle therewith….
(e) Disposition of unsafe broken packages. In the event any leaking package or container cannot be safely and adequately repaired for transportation or transported, it shall be stored pending proper disposition in the safest and most expeditious manner possible.
If the incident had been handled normally. the westbound lanes of the interstate highway would have been closed or restricted for several hours. A hazardous-materials team and multiple backup units, as well as several agencies, could have turned the affair into a “major mental emergency.” Traffic could have been snarled for hours, and several minor accidents typically could result. A “worst-case” scenario treatment of even the most innocent leaks has become pretty much commonplace in most jurisdictions.
In this instance, it was known that a public phone directly adjacent to a vacant lot was just a few miles away. Several handfuls of dirt were placed over the trailer drain hole, stopping any further leak from the trailer. The truck then was escorted to the phone.
The shipping department of the local Coca Cola® bottler was contacted and asked if it could simply unload the damaged drum and clean up the spill. The product then could be “repoured” into a new container or be held at the Coca Cola® dock for disposition. The department foreman was reluctant to assist; so the typical handling of such an incident, with all its attendant publicity, was explained to his plant manager. The manager quickly agreed that the recommended course of action would most expeditiously satisfy all concerned. The truck would be gotten back on the road within the hour, at a significant cost savings over the usual procedure of having the trucking company contact a private cleanup contractor to handle the spill.
The logic behind this action was that the most qualified personnel, with the proper equipment, were those who dealt with this exact same product, in this exact same container. every day. Far too often, this rationale is overlooked in the application of routine “cookie-cutter” emergency responses to hazardous-materials incidents. Frequently, public safety agency personnel are unnecessarily exposed to hazards while solving problems that aren’t really theirs to solve in the first place.
By applying some common sense and determining who was best qualified to safely handle the incident, the leak of a fairly innocuous hazardous material was resolved with a minimum of unnecessary exposure to personnel.
