Time to check those flares.
For more information information on flares and flare safety,
Orion Signals offers a great deal of information:
Their Signaling
Guide describes different types of signals, basic signaling rules and the
principals if signaling.
They also provide the USCG requirements for signaling which
includes:
The USCG Requirements for Visual Distress Signals
The complete US
Coast Guard Auxiliary Seal of Safety checklist
A complete guide
to the federal requirements for safety equipment on all vessels
The following article comes from Boatus.com:
FIRED UP OVER OLD FLARES
Author/s: Elaine Dickinson
Issue: Sept, 2000
Ever notice how a small pile of extra pocket change inexplicably grows into
a mass of unwanted coins you don't know what to do with? Well, expired flares
and loose change have a lot in common.
After three boating seasons, boaters must by law replace their emergency visual
distress signals, required on boats over 16 feet. So most boat owners eventually
have a pile of expired flares that cannot be thrown out in the regular trash,
clearly should not be set off, and should not be left lying around the house
where kids or pets can find them and get hurt.
The problem became quite real in Florida in 1999 when a small child found
an old flare in the back seat of a car, set it off and injured all six people
in the vehicle. Florida boaters alone generate over 400,000 expired flares annually,
according to state officials.
With an estimated half-million new signal flares sold each year, it's a burning
problem. But finally, concerned boaters and safety groups are now putting the
heat on various agencies to resolve the disposal problem once and for all. A
number of projects have sprung up around the country recently that seem to be
working.
In the summer of 1999, a pilot project was launched in the Pacific Northwest
involving the U.S. Coast Guard's 13th District and Orion Signal Flares, a major
pyrotechnics manufacturer. Boaters were encouraged to turn in their old flares
to any Coast Guard station in Washington and Oregon or to Coast Guard Auxiliary
flotillas in the region. As an incentive, Orion provided the Coast Guard with
10%-off discount coupons good towards the purchase of new Orion flares. Orion
supported the effort with posters: "Retire Them, Don't Fire Them."
The program was given a year to work and, with 6,000 old flares turned in,
is considered a great success, said Don Knesebeck, the boating safety specialist
for the district. Some were dated from the 1960s, he said. The 13th District
also reported a 50% drop in false distress calls for the same time period which
saved an estimated $640,000. Half of all false emergency calls to the Coast
Guard are from flares being set off. There are now discussions underway to find
a way to expand the program nationwide.
"It's a problem that never goes away and we're going to be affected by it
one way or the other," said Frank Amodeo, general manager of Orion who worked
on this pilot program. "There are still some hurdles but those are mainly logistical
and transport issues."
Collecting old flares is actually the easy part, said Amodeo. Once collected,
the hard part is how to store, transport and destroy them. Flares cannot be
easily transported because the shipper needs a special hazardous material shipping
registration.
By law, a flare is good for 42 months from the date of manufacture. Their
shelf life is limited because the chemicals in the product are exposed to moisture
and varying temperatures and, as a life-saving device, it has to work properly.
Just like photographic film or pharmaceuticals, the chemicals can break down
over time, Amodeo said. Flares more than five years old should not be set off
at all as they could misfire and hurt someone.
Beyond keeping expired flares on board as extras, the best solution so far
seems to be local disposal through boating groups such as the Coast Guard Auxiliary
and U.S. Power Squadrons, the local police or fire departments. The BoatU.S.
Foundation recently sponsored three flare collection events in California through
a Grassroots Grant to the Orange County CoastKeeper organization.
The BoatU.S. Marine Center in Huntington Harbour, CA, was a collection and
demonstration site, as was Dana Point Harbor and Newport Harbor. According to
organizers, more than 100 flares were brought in and disposal was handled by
the local police. Elsewhere in California, the Coast Guard's Marine Safety Office
in San Diego has launched a cooperative program with the city's Metro Arson
Strike Team to begin collecting expired pyrotechnics, with the aid of the Coast
Guard Auxiliary. The arson team will use the flares in their training programs
or demonstrations.
One of the nation's biggest boating states, Florida, took on the problem after
boaters complained that some counties would accept flares as household hazardous
waste and others would not. Through a special program, the state Dept. of Environment
(DEP) launched a project for flare disposal in its southeast district.
DEP manager and BoatU.S. member Cheryl McKee of West Palm Beach headed up
this project and her research found that 38% of flares were being thrown out
in regular trash. Half of the boaters surveyed did not know flares were considered
hazardous waste.
After four years of meetings between boaters, police, fire, waste management
agencies and DEP, there is now an approved system for flare disposal for southeast
Florida and McKee hopes it solves the problem statewide. The key factor, McKee
said, was getting the state fire marshal to agree to help counties with their
disposal problem by allowing flares to be destroyed in special burn units used
by bomb squads. Many of the burn units are mobile and can be trailered to different
areas if necessary.
Without a local collection program, boaters can do one of several things:
* Contact the local county public works or sanitation department to see if
they'll accept flares on special household hazardous waste collection days;
* Contact local boating groups to see if they accept flares for use in demonstrations
or classes;
* Contact your local police or fire department to see if they can use old
flares or dispose of them in burn units;
* Do not set off aerials or hand-held flares on the water or anywhere near
the water or where they can be seen and mistaken for a distress call.Do not
discard them in the water.
To view the state of Florida's flare plan, which may serve other states, go
to www.dep.state.fl.us/sed and go to "waste programs."
COPYRIGHT 2000 Boat Owners Association
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group
