Mike Compton of ICHCA International reports on the IMO sub-committee meeting, which took place 17-21 September 2007. Most of the IMDG Code has been mandatory since 1 January 2004. However, one small part is not and that is concerned with shoreside training of those persons who are involved in any way with the generation of packaged dangerous goods to the port and the ship. Similar training for ships' crews is mandatory but the reasoning for the difference is that IMO's remit does not extend ashore beyond the immediate ship/shore interface.
As TT Talk goes to press, there are reports of another container, allegedly laden with pesticides, exploding. The Club has frequently highlighted the risks arising from errors throughout the supply chain from manufacture through packing and labelling to documentation.
Releasing its 2006 annual results at the end of March, transport insurance specialist TT Club revealed that its biggest single loss during the year had been a man-made one - the explosions and huge fire on board the Hyundai Fortune, in the Gulf of Aden on passage from the Far East to Europe.
TT Club, the leading mutual insurance provider for the transport industry, has expressed renewed concern over continuing breaches of the International Maritime Organization's IMDG Code covering the carriage of dangerous goods. In an effort to improve the compliance ratio the Club has released the latest in its series of Stop Loss bulletins, focusing on the transport of packaged dangerous goods.
The Club has been running a related initiative raising awareness of carriage of dangerous goods in containers. It has recently published a new Stop Loss information sheet entitled 'Guidance on the Transport of Packaged Dangerous Goods by Sea'.
In recent years at least six big container ships have been seriously damaged by major fires or explosions. Apart from the loss of life and injury to seafarers, each accident caused millions of dollars of damages. Experts attribute most of these incidents to hazardous materials that were loaded into containers but not declared to the carriers.
