Beware Of Hazardous Materials While Transportation

By Author: markpeter
Total Articles: 6
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The term ‘hazmat’ has been shortened from hazardous material and today has become a term by itself. It is very evident from the term that hazardous materials are such stuffs that can cause harm and hazards to people and can prove to be dangerous if not handled carefully. The damage caused by hazmat is not only limited to humans, but also affects other living organisms, the environment and various properties at large. Thus it is understandable and expected that such hazardous and dangerous materials should be handled with extreme care specially while transportation.

Hazmat can be in various forms as in solid, liquid or gaseous forms. There are certain groups of materials that have been tagged as dangerous elements. Explosives, radioactive substances, inflammable objects, oxidizing substances, corrosives, toxic, allergenic, pathogenic substances are all categorized as hazmat. There are various dangerous goods rules and regulations that are issued by various transportation authorities across the globe, like IATA (International Air Transport Association) and IMO (International Maritime Organization) for safe transportation ...
... of hazardous materials.

There are special hazmat teams that are trained to handle such hazardous substances and help in cases where rescue work is needed when an accident happens due to such dangerous materials. Such teams are present in aircrafts that carry such hazardous substances and also in cargo ships which carry such stuff. This is a rule that has been set by the IATA and IMO respectively. Non-compliance of these rules and regulations may lead to severe punishment that might include arrest and monetary fines. The amount of such fines is huge and a company can actually go bankrupt paying such fines.

There are some common symbols and colors that are used globally to represent the types of hazmat that is present. This diamond system for identifying hazmat originated in France after the devastating World War II. Almost all the hazardous materials are marked by diamond shaped symbols. The colors of the diamonds differ according to the hazardous materials. For instance, for explosives, the color of the diamond is orange as it is caused when a flammable object (red color) comes in contact of an oxidizing agent (yellow color); whereas for a non flammable non toxic gas the symbol is a green diamond. Flammable substances are marked by red diamond shapes. These symbols are also followed and maintained by the IATA and IMO while transportation of hazardous and dangerous materials.

There are many international rules and regulations related to transportation of hazardous substances or hazmat. The ‘UN Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods’ is issued by the ‘United Nations Economic and Social Council’, which is the main platform on which majority of the national and regional regulatory schemes of transporting hazmat are based. The IATA has issued ‘IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations’ for safe transportation of dangerous materials via air, while the IMO has developed an ‘International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code’ so that goods can be transported safely in high seas. The hazmat team present on aircrafts or ships have special hazmat outfits so that they can work better if situation demands.