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Shipping Different Dangerous Goods in One Package

This post was originally published in December 2017 and has been updated in April 2022 for accuracy.

Q Value!

Now doesn’t that sound interesting. When you want to ship different dangerous goods in one outer packaging, you have to calculate something called a “Q value” using a formula. The Q value ordeal is only applicable to air shipments and seldom used as most prefer to put the dangerous goods in separate packaging.

Last week a customer requested to have 2 different dangerous goods packaged and shipped to Brazil via air. Since the quantities for each product was less than 200 ml I thought I might be able to apply the “Q” value and besides it’s always better to consolidate your shipment if you can to prevent loss/delay of packages. Especially this time of the year.

I ensured the dangerous goods met all the requirements of Section 5.0.2.11 of the IATA Regulation. I calculated the “Q” value and it was less than 1.0. So, everything seemed to be a go. For packaging, I used a 4GV box and lots of vermiculite to:

  1. separate the two dangerous goods and
  2. more than enough absorbent in case there was a leak (only one product was liquid)

Applied all the labels and markings, created the shipper’s declaration and added the Q value as required per Section 8.1.6.9.2(f), then shipped it out with Fedex.

I like to throw in a knuckleball once in a while and keep things interesting around here … like using Q value!

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4GV UN Boxes – Variation

Shipping by Air Declaration

This post was originally written by Racheal Mani.

Michael Zendano

Michael Zendano started with ICC Compliance Center back in 2016 with several years in the packaging field as a Quality Control Manager. In addition, he has 8 years experience in teaching. Michael works at the Niagara Falls Office as the Regulatory Packaging Expert where he manages packaging projects and procedures and is a member of the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IOPP) and The Chemical Packaging Committee (CPC) . Degrees: M.S. Science of Education.