History of Dangerous Goods Regulations for Air Transports
?The transportation of dangerous goods is organized to prevent, as far as possible, accidents involving people or Property and damage to the environment, means of transport used, or other goods.
At the same time, this is why the regulations are framed so as not to impede the movement of such goods, other than those which are too dangerous for them to be accepted for carriage. With this exception, the Hazardous Substances Regulations aim to make transportation possible by eliminating risks or minimizing them. Thus, it is as much a matter of safety as it is of facilitation of transportation.
Dangerous Goods have been transported in large quantities since the rapid industrialization of the late 1800s.
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History of U.S. Dangerous Goods Regulations
Before reading about the history of air dangerous goods regulations, I will explain to you the history of dangerous goods regulations in the United States of America, the first country to regulate the transportation of hazardous materials.?
In the USA, the primary method of transporting dangerous goods in the mid-19th century was through navigable waters. The first hazmat regulations focused on maintaining the safety of ships carrying hazardous materials. Also, U.S. Coast Guard was the first government entity to oversee the regulation of hazmat transportation at that time.
Early Dangerous Goods Regulations in the US were based on principles of English common law, which stated that "a shipper shall not load a dangerous cargo which may damage the ship, without the knowledge or consent of the carrier".
?I will summarize it for you as follows:
History of Air Dangerous Goods Regulation After 1950
After 1950, only very few countries permitted the carriage of dangerous goods (which were called restricted articles) by air. Also, most countries did not permit the transport of restricted articles at all.
The term restricted articles included a wide variety of substances that have dangerous characteristics that make it necessary to control, restrict, or forbid the acceptance of restricted articles for air transport.
At that time, countries permitted small quantities of restricted articles to be transported by air under well-defined conditions, and it was important that such articles would be fully compatible with the applicable standards and requirements in surface transportation.?
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History of IATA DGR
In 1952, IATA established a restricted articles working group (later known as the IATA Restricted Articles Board). This working group studied all available dangerous goods regulations by different means of transport. In this process, consideration was given to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations, previously called the interstate commerce commission (ICC) regulations.?
After four years of work by the Restricted Articles Board, the first international regulations governing the carriage of restricted articles by air became effective 1st January 1956. After 27 years, IATA Issued The 24th edition of IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations (previously called IATA Restricted Articles Regulations).
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The 24th edition complied in all respects with the requirements of the ICAO Annex 18 and its associated Technical Instructions.?
That is why!
Our instructor was holding the IATA DGR manual and told us “It is the book of the year!”. Mr. Ong encouraged us to read more, and more to well understand IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations. The current IATA DGR manual was my book for years!
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History of ICAO Annex 18 and its associated Technical Instructions
In early 1975, ICAO was involved in the field of dangerous goods regulations, it started the ICAO study group, which was comprising representatives from ICAO, IATA, IFALPA, Federal Republic of Germany, US DOT, and US FAA to make recommendations.?
In 1977, the ICAO hold the first meeting of the ICAO Dangerous Goods Panel (DGP) to prepare the draft of ICAO Annex 18 to the Chicago Convention on international civil aviation together with its associated technical instructions for the safe transport of dangerous goods by air.??
In 1982, the 1983 editions of ICAO Annex 18 and its associated Technical Instructions were published. In 1984, ICAO Technical Instructions became mandatory for all ICAO member states.?
I have the 1999-2000 edition of ICAO Technical Instructions, while it has a different book structure (parts, chapters), it looks like IATA DGR especially blue and yellow pages which are the list of dangerous goods and packing instructions. IATA professional mark is appearing!?
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Dangerous goods Regulations (for all models of transport) are used by all who are directly or indirectly concerned with the transport of dangerous goods. It covers principles of classification and definition of classes, a listing of the principal dangerous goods, general packing requirements, testing procedures, marking, labeling, and transport documents. There are, in addition, special requirements related to particular classes of dangerous goods.?
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References
-?????????IATA Guidelines for DGR Instructors 2013
-?????????Cooperative Research for Hazardous Materials Transportation, Defining the Need, Converging on Solutions -- Special Report 283 , (2005).
-?????????Hazardous Materials History, https://www.dgm-usa-ny.com/.
-?????????Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, Model Regulations, Volume I, Nineteenth revised edition, United Nations
Director, International Aviation Training Associates (IATA)
1 年Maged, you have written a well laid out article which is very interesting - congratulations. As a suggestion I think you might want to consider including a statement that the only legal document when it comes to the transportation of Dangerous Goods by air, is the ICAO Technical Instruction. The IATA DGR Manual is not a legal document.
GOVERNMENT OF THE SULTANATE OF OMAN
1 年Thanks for sharing
Retired at EASA and DGAC. Safety, regulations and drones. Posts are mine. ??????????
1 年Thank you for sharing this very nice article.