Since the 1960's, hazardous materials regulations have grown considerably. To some, people they too complex and inflexible. Additionally, these standards did not easily incorporate the new non-bulk packaging methods, nor, did they dovetail with international U.N. recommendations. In response to many of these issues, the DOT's RSPCA group proposed a set of sweeping changes. These new regulations were assigned to docket HM-181.
Beware, though, that many users refer to all recent changes as HM-181 regulations, when, in fact, they could be found under related dockets. After a lengthy public review process, the regulations were passed and are described in the Hazardous Materials Regulations, 49 CFR parts 172 to 180. These are the important source documents for DOT shipping labels. HM-215AS is the final rule and aligns U.S. regulations with the UN Recommendations.
Labels now show the UN/NA ID number, the generic description of the material and the technical name of the chemical.
Each side of the label should be at least 3.9" (100mm) long and have a solid inner border line that is 0.2" to 0.25" (5-6.3mm) from the outer edge of the label.
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