PHMSA Implements New Data-Driven Framework for Hazmat Transportation Enforcement

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) recently released a memorandum outlining a new data-driven framework on outreach, inspection, and enforcement practices within its Office of Hazardous Materials Safety (OHMS). These new priorities support the Department’s core mission of upholding the highest of safety standards. 

 

“Safety drives everything we do. That's why, for the first time ever, PHMSA is publicly highlighting key focus areas for our inspection and enforcement teams to drive meaningful improvements in the movement of hazardous materials,” said Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administrator Paul Roberti. “We aim to build safer communities across America through stronger compliance, enhanced partnerships, and higher safety standards for our industry.”

 

The memo directs PHMSA hazmat inspectors and investigators to focus on areas with the greatest potential impact on hazardous materials safety and to base their decisions on data-driven analyses. In addition to inspection and enforcement, the memo outlines priorities for outreach to regulated entities to help prevent safety violations and accidents before they occur.

 

Additional Information:

 

The OHMS inspection and enforcement priorities memo is available on PHMSA’s website. This memo follows a similar effort already undertaken by PHMSA’s Office of Pipeline Safety.

 

Priorities in the memo are outlined below:

 

 

 

 

OSHA has resumed normal enforcement operations paused due to the lapse in federal appropriations between Oct. 1 and Nov. 12, 2025. The Department of Labor announced on Dec. 2 that OSHA is working to address as quickly as possible the backlog of safety and health complaints submitted during the government shutdown.

 

Some complaints that “did not meet criteria for expected activity” were not processed when the government reopened, according to DOL. Individuals who submitted complaints during the shutdown do not need to resubmit.

 

A DOL news release states that employers have until Dec. 4 to respond to OSHA citations issued or received between Oct. 1 and Nov. 12. The Occupational Safety and Health Act allows employers up to 15 “working days” after receiving a citation to comply, request a meeting with OSHA, or contest the citation before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Government shutdown days do not count as “working days,” according to DOL.

 

U.S. Department of Labor safety investigators have determined that an engineering and construction company exposed workers to safety hazards after an investigation into a worker fatality at the Hanwa Q Cells Georgia, Inc. plant in White, Georgia.

 

OSHA issued Hyoungwon E&C America, Inc. a citation with a serious violation under the Occupational Safety and Health Act's general duty clause for failing to protect employees against asphyxiation hazards related to nitrogen gas and another serious violation for not providing effective information and training on hazards related to nitrogen gas and oxygen-deficient atmospheres. The employer faces $20,522 in proposed penalties.

 

The company has 15 business days from receipt of their citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

 

Penalties and citations may be adjusted throughout the course of the case process. Please check the OSHA establishment search page periodically for any changes in the inspection or penalty status.

 

 

The EPA announced a settlement with Chedraui USA, Inc., doing business as El Super and Smart & Final Stores, LLC, for violating federal pesticide law by distributing illegal disinfectants in their stores in Arizona, California, and Nevada. Under the settlement, Chedraui will pay a penalty of $472,369 to resolve the claims. As a result of EPA’s action, the illegal disinfectants were removed from stores.

 

“Unregistered disinfectants can not only be ineffective, but can contain dangerous ingredients,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Region Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division Director Amy Miller. “Companies have a responsibility to protect their customers from illegal, potentially harmful disinfectant products, and can do so by making sure they are registered with EPA.”

 

Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), EPA regulates the sale and distribution of disinfectants to halt products that may be ineffective or harmful. The regulations require that disinfectants are registered with EPA. Chedraui USA, Inc. is a Mexican company that owns the grocery store chains El Super and Smart & Final. Based on inspections that the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and EPA performed in 2021, EPA found that the El Super store in Santa Ana, Calif and the Smart & Final store in Hayward, Calif. were both selling unregistered disinfectants with labels making unverified statements about effectiveness against microorganisms. Further investigation revealed that the grocery store chains widely distributed these disinfectants on numerous occasions to store locations throughout Arizona, California, and Nevada. 

 

At the El Super in Santa Ana, EPA found that two of the pesticides being sold, “S&C Sanitizer” and “S&C Disinfectant,” had quaternary ammonia, a product with high toxicity that requires a “danger” label. EPA found that these and another product, “Prinex Sanysol,” contained unverified statements about their effectiveness. EPA found El Super distributed these products on at least 61 occasions.

 

At the Smart & Final in Hayward, EPA found a product named “Perfect Professional Advanced Multi-Surface Sanitizer” that made unverified statements about its ability to kill germs. EPA found Smart & Final distributed this unregistered pesticide on at least 53 occasions.

 

Chedraui and Smart & Final have confirmed these products are no longer being distributed to or sold in their stores.

 

 

The “default values” EPA uses in its risk assessments of new chemicals have been made available online in the agency’s New Chemicals Division Reference Library, EPA announced on Nov. 24. According to the agency, these values are the “assumptions used by EPA in environmental release and occupational exposure assessments” during reviews in which “chemical-specific information is not available or substantiated” with relevant documentation. For example, the agency may use default values when it does not know the type of containers that are used to transport a chemical or how much chemical residue might remain in process equipment before cleaning.

 

The new document, Common Engineering Defaults Used in EPA’s New Chemical Assessments (PDF), includes two tables: one focused on common models used by the agency to estimate environmental releases and one that covers common models and default values EPA uses to estimate dermal and inhalation exposures to workers. According to the agency, these values come from its Chemical Screening Tool for Exposures and Environmental Releases, its “Generic Scenarios” documents for occupational exposure and release assessment, and Emission Scenario Documents published by OECD, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international organization focused on finding solutions to social, economic, and environmental challenges.

 

Section 5 of the Toxic Substances Control Act requires EPA to assess potential levels of environmental release and worker exposure during the lifecycle of new chemicals. The agency believes that the publication of these default values will “help new chemical submitters better understand EPA’s chemical assessment process and develop higher-quality submissions,” an agency news release explains.

 

The new technical guidance is available as a PDF from the EPA website.

 

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified the herbicides atrazine and alachlor as Group 2A carcinogens, the agency’s designation for substances that are probably carcinogenic to humans. According to a Q&A published by IARC (PDF), the two herbicides are probable human carcinogens due to a “combination of limited evidence for cancer in humans and sufficient evidence for cancer in experimental animals” as well as the “combination of limited evidence for cancer in humans and strong mechanistic evidence in experimental systems.” IARC’s findings are described in an article published online on Nov. 21 in The Lancet Oncology. Further details will appear later in a new volume of the agency’s monographs series.

 

Limited evidence links atrazine, which is banned in the European Union but still heavily used in the U.S. and in countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. And one large cohort study of pesticide applicators found that alachlor, which IARC describes as “once one of the most heavily used herbicides globally,” may cause laryngeal cancer in humans. Alachlor use today is down following regulatory restrictions on the herbicide that the agency says began in the 1990s. Both atrazine and alachlor are used on crops such as corn, but atrazine is also used to treat turf and lawns.

 

“For each of these pesticides, factory and agricultural workers have the highest exposures, which can occur during pesticide production and agricultural or horticultural activities, primarily via inhalation and dermal absorption,” the Lancet Oncology article explains.

 

IARC also evaluated the carcinogenicity of the fungicide vinclozolin, which it says is mainly used on fruits and vegetables. The agency classified vinclozolin as possibly carcinogenic to humans, in Group 2B, based on “sufficient evidence for cancer in experimental animals and strong mechanistic evidence in experimental systems.” According to IARC, vinclozolin is still used in some countries but is restricted in the U.S. and has been withdrawn from the European Union.

 

A summary of IARC’s evaluation can be found in The Lancet Oncology. The full article is available free of charge to registered users (registration is also free). Further details can be found in a news article on IARC’s website.

 

 

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