FAA Safety Promotion Helps to Mitigate HAZMAT Transportation Risks
The FAA’s Office of Hazardous Materials Safety is finding success with its targeted safety messaging with industry stakeholders.
Written by Jim Tise, FAA Office of Communications
The FAA Office of Hazardous Materials Safety (AXH) is working closely with airlines, shipping companies and manufacturers to reduce the risks associated with regulated dangerous goods, also known as hazardous materials, being transported in aircraft cargo, carry-on luggage and stowed luggage. When these materials are properly packaged, labeled, and stowed, they can be transported, but when they are not — they can pose significant threats to safety.
Through campaigns like Safe Cargo, which targets shippers of commercial goods, and Pack Safe, which targets passengers, the FAA aims to mitigate risks before an accident or incident occurs. This approach is more effective and proactive than assessing fines and penalties after discovering violations.
The campaigns have focused on reducing the number of undeclared or improperly handled hazmat, such as lithium batteries, dry ice, or vaping products.
“We are more focused on groups where data reveal the risk exists,” said Ben Supko, executive director of AXH. “If we get our message to the right people, they will understand the risks and take action to mitigate.”
The data indicates the campaigns have paid off. AXH web traffic has increased by more than 1,000 percent and has been linked to more than 30 third-party websites since 2017. By raising awareness of undeclared hazardous materials, the campaigns have resulted in a 79 percent increase in reports of improperly declared items.
“A 79 percent increase in reporting sounds bad,” Supko said. “But the data simply tells us that hazmat hazards have always been there. Now, we have data on the hazard and an opportunity to mitigate risks.”
The program also has been well received. At the recent Air Cargo 2020 Conference in January, the stakeholder engagement team encountered an eager audience.
“It was this conference where I felt like the FAA were rock stars,” said Ranee Elter, a stakeholder engagement team member. “We had a constant stream of visitors who were all so interested in talking with FAA. They had real stories to share about issues keeping them up at night, and they walked away with information on where to go for resources and support from the FAA.”
By fostering professional relationships with high-volume shippers like Amazon and cargo carriers like FedEx and UPS, the FAA gains new data to analyze and pinpoint the areas of greatest risk. At the same time, carriers and shippers get new perspectives on hazmat, which help them to mitigate risks and avoid incidents and fines.
Some shippers, such as Amazon, are providing one-on-one help to manufacturers who would not otherwise have been alert to the dangers of hazmat on airplanes.
“With the evolution of e-commerce, we are seeing more entities involved in hazmat transportation that do not fully recognize the risk,” Supko said.
One of the most frequently undeclared hazmat risks should be of no surprise to anyone who carries an electronic device onboard an airplane: lithium batteries, which pose a fire risk and require special handling. Aerosol products, dry ice, and miscellaneous flammable liquids, such as cleansers and paint, make up the other most frequently undeclared categories.
“The idea is to identify risk information from throughout our program and designate specific campaigns to target those risks,” said Victoria Lehman, another stakeholder engagement team member.
To address safety issues around transporting lithium batteries, the FAA Office of Communications promoted digital content on agency social media channels with specific messaging about the dangers of flying with personal electronic devices, including e-cigarettes or vaporizers, also known as “vapes.” Since vapes pose a fire risk, the FAA instructs passengers to keep spare batteries, e-cigarette or vape devices with them in carry-on luggage. Keeping devices and spare batteries in carry-on luggage allows crew to respond to incidents more quickly.
The FAA’s initial e-cigarettes/vaping campaign provided alerts about e-cigarette restrictions on monitors at 10 participating airports. The agency estimates roughly 28 million passengers had the opportunity to view the information over a three-month period.
The FAA also started attending trade shows to develop relationships with and educate the shipping and manufacturing industry. The team conducts post-event briefings where they discuss the issues shared by industry so that they can refine safety messaging, perform follow-up engagement with stakeholders, and develop targeted campaigns.
“They were happy to cooperate,” Lehman said. “It was an area we had in common. They understood the fire risk posed by transporting vaping devices and wanted to help get the message to their customers.”
The team also learned how to best reach consumers. Because vaping companies are often banned from advertising on social media, the FAA worked to connect with them on the closed forums and online groups that they use to communicate.
By contrast, the dry ice promotional campaign used social media to target both shippers and passengers. It explained that dry ice can explode or emit enough carbon dioxide gas to cause a suffocation hazard.
“We talked about seasonal messaging through social media and on our website,” Elter said, noting that dry ice is used to pack fish and game during hunting months, while Thanksgiving and Christmas have the busiest travel days of the year. “We decided on hunting and holiday seasons.”
The stakeholder engagement team is now working on a promotional campaign with a different twist. Rather than focus on a specific hazard such as lithium batteries or aerosol cans, they are targeting travel groups — sports teams, Boy and Girl Scout troops, tourist and school groups, and more. Travel groups transport lots of luggage — including possible hazardous materials — that are often consolidated in one large shipment.
The campaign started after Supko’s office noticed a trend in violations by student athletic teams, which often transport items like medical supplies, liquids, and video production equipment — all of which can be hazardous materials.
Noting that his office has only 90 hazmat inspectors, Supko believes by following a data-driven approach, the FAA can earn more bang for its educational buck.
“You can have a greater impact than sending your inspectors to chase one-offs that are low risk,” he said.
That’s also why the FAA encourages stakeholders to participate and share hazmat safety promotion efforts throughout their supply chains.
One major carrier has started a new screening program to identify hazardous materials before they make it onboard an aircraft. The carrier is sharing data from that program with the FAA. The FAA in turn shares the information with other carriers, which incorporate it into their Safety Management Systems (SMS).
“The SMS evolves with the hazards, enabling continual improvement and new mitigations,” he said. “For example, as new suppliers enter the market they do so with a new set of hazards that will be addressed by the SMS.”
The collaboration between the FAA’s Office of Hazardous Materials Safety and industry has proven that stakeholder engagement works, Supko said.
“In fact, it has expanded safety risk mitigation well beyond our walls through a network of internal and external partners,” Supko said. “And this is just the beginning.”
