June 17, 2019 Washington, DC
PHMSA’s Office of Hazardous Materials Safety has scheduled a public meeting for June 17, 2019, to solicit input on the development of the 2020 edition of the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG). The ERG is a guidebook intended for use by first responders during the initial phase of a transportation incident involving dangerous goods/hazardous materials and has been updated and published every four years. It has been PHMSA’s goal that all public emergency response personnel have free and immediate access to the ERG. To date, nearly 14.5 million free copies have been distributed to the emergency response community through state emergency management coordinators.
During the June 17 meeting, PHMSA will discuss methodology used to determine the appropriate response protective distances for poisonous vapors resulting from spills involving dangerous goods considered toxic by inhalation in the “green pages” of the 2016 ERG. PHMSA will also solicit comments related to new methodologies and considerations for future editions of the ERG; and discuss outcomes of field experiments, as well as ongoing research, to better understand environmental effects on airborne toxic gas concentrations, and the updates that will be published in the 2020 ERG.
The meeting will be held at the U.S. Department of Transportation Conference Center at 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20590 on June 17, 2019, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. EST. Click here for registration and conference call-in information. For questions about the meeting, contact Ryan Vierling (202) 366-4620 or Shante Goodall (202) 366-4545.