What are Dangerous Goods?
Dangerous goods are not only found in an industrial context but are part of everyday life. You only have to look in the bathroom at antiperspirant or hairspray aerosols which contain propellants that are flammable, or in the garage at tins of paint, turpentine, a can of petrol and gardening items such as weed killer or pesticides. They may have flammable or toxic symbols on them and instructions for their safe use but no mention is made of any transportation requirements to suit the nature of the transportation mode.
All modes, that is land- (road, rail), inland waterway), air and sea have regulations in place governing their safe transport and although their classification criteria may be harmonised, each may have specific carriage requirements.
At sea the particular considerations include time to evacuate, availability of emergency services, proximity to land, sea conditions and associated vessel motion and so on.
Or, put simply, on land you can walk away from a situation whilst at sea you cannot.
Dangerous goods are divided into two types:
The carriage of oil and bulk gas is dealt with under specific cargo regulations.
A sea journey is classed as involving domestic or international ferries and cargo ships, operating in either rivers, estuary waters or the open sea and therefore, the requirements of the IMDG Code apply.
Packaged dangerous goods are classified according to the reformatted IMDG Code 34th amendment or 2008 edition (two volume A4 paperback) which became mandatory from January 1st 2010 and is brought into UK law by means of the Statutory Instrument (SI) 1997/2367 Merchant Shipping (Dangerous Goods and Marine Pollutants) Regulations 1997 (http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/stat.htm).