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Summary of changes in Amendment 34-08


There are many detailed changes throughout the text of amendment 34, but for information the main changes are:-

Additional items in the Dangerous Goods List
i) There are 12 new UN numbers going up to 3481, with explosives going up to 0508.

New UN numbers added in Amendment 34-08

0506SIGNALS, DISTRESS, ship
0506SIGNALS, DISTRESS, ship
0507SIGNALS, SMOKE
05081-HYDROXYBENZOTRIAZOLE, ANHYDROUS
34741-HYDROXYBENZOTRIAZOLE, ANHYDROUS, WETTED with not less than 20% water, by mass
3475ETHANOL AND GASOLINE MIXTURE or ETHANOL AND MOTOR SPIRIT MIXTURE or ETHANOL AND PETROL MIXTURE, with more than 10% ethanol
3476FUEL CELL CARTRIDGES or FUEL CELL CARTRIDGES CONTAINED IN EQUIPMENT or FUEL CELL CARTRIDGES PACKED WITH EQUIPMENT, containing water-reactive substances
3477FUEL CELL CARTRIDGES or FUEL CELL CARTRIDGES CONTAINED IN EQUIPMENT or FUEL CELL CARTRIDGES PACKED WITH EQUIPMENT, containing corrosive substances
3478FUEL CELL CARTRIDGES or FUEL CELL CARTRIDGES CONTAINED IN EQUIPMENT or FUEL CELL CARTRIDGES PACKED WITH EQUIPMENT, containing liquefied flammable gas
3479FUEL CELL CARTRIDGES or FUEL CELL CARTRIDGES CONTAINED IN EQUIPMENT or FUEL CELL CARTRIDGES PACKED WITH EQUIPMENT, containing hydrogen in metal hydride
3480LITHIUM ION BATTERIES
3481LITHIUM ION BATTERIES CONTAINED IN EQUIPMENT or LITHIUM ION BATTERIES PACKED WITH EQUIPMENT

ii) There are also 5 UN numbers which were previously not listed in the IMDG Code because they were not regulated under it, but are now shown with the observation "Not subject to the provisions of this Code but may be subject to provisions governing the transport of dangerous goods by other modes.". This could be useful when a shipment needs to be labelled as hazardous at some other stage of its journey.

UN Numbers not previously listed in IMDG but have been included in Amendment 34-08
1910CALCIUM OXIDE
2807MAGNETIZED MATERIAL
2812SODIUM ALUMINATE, SOLID
3166ENGINE, INTERNAL COMBUSTION or VEHICLE, FLAMMABLE GAS POWERED or VEHICLE, FLAMMABLE LIQUID POWERED
3171BATTERY-POWERED VEHICLE or BATTERY-POWERED EQUIPMENT

Training
Appropriate training for shore-side staff involved with dangerous goods is now mandatory instead of just recommended, and may be audited by the competent authority. Persons not yet trained may only operate under the direct supervision of a trained person. See 1.3.1.1. IMDG Code e-learning is a new training tool for shore-side staff involved in Dangerous Goods handling and transport. It is designed to support cost-effective compliance for all shore-side sectors.

Marine pollutant
The concept of a severe marine pollutant PP is deleted; they are just designated as P. The marine pollutant 'bullet' symbol is also deleted, but a shipper will still need to declare any consignment as being a marine pollutant if it meets the criteria. There is a new section 2.9.3 describing these, and chapter 2.10 is rewritten. The new marine pollutant label is a dead tree and dead fish.

IMO tank instructions
The IMO tank instruction column disappears from the Dangerous Goods List because the transitional provisions on their use will have expired by the time this amendment becomes mandatory on 1/1/2010.

Excepted quantities
There is a new column 7b in the Dangerous Goods List for excepted quantities. These are small amounts, up to 30g or 30ml per inner package, 1kg per outer package. These are subject only to the rules of the new chapter 3.5, part 2 (classification) and some sections of 4.1 (packing) and 5.4 (documentation). They will be labelled with an 'excepted quantity' label and the class number. The dangerous goods form shall state the words "dangerous goods in excepted quantities" together with the description of the shipment. An entry E0 in column 7b indicates that a substance may not be transported in excepted quantities. Codes E1 to E5 indicate different quantity limits according to a table in chapter 3.5. The total number of excepted quantity packages in a CTU shall not exceed 1000.

Limited quantities
For a substance not permitted in limited quantities, the column 7a entry "None" becomes "0".

Radioactive materials of class 7
For class 7 radioactives, chapter 2.7 is completely rewritten, and there is a new chapter 1.5, 'general provisions concerning class 7'.