What does one do when the need to ship something outside the realm of “ordinary” arises?<\/p>\n
Last month I had to ship a couple of small bottles of bromine for a client. It was more involved than I originally expected.\u00a0 Before even getting close to the bottle, I wanted to know what was so bad about it. Why is bromine hazardous?<\/em><\/p>\n I read through the MSDS to get an idea of what I was about to work with.\u00a0This shipment was going by ocean so I also had a look at the IMDG code.\u00a0According to IMDG, it has an extremely irritating odour, is a powerful oxidant, and is highly corrosive to most metals. Also, it is toxic if swallowed, by skin contact or by inhalation.\u00a0Furthermore, it can cause burns to skin, eyes and mucous membranes. To say the least, it is pretty nasty stuff.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here is the classification:<\/strong> As you can see, it is Packing Group I material. I went to IMDG packing instruction P804 to see what was required for packaging and found that it read completely different than the normal P001 and P002 that one frequently sees.\u00a0This instruction lists four possible ways that this material can be packaged, all varying depending on what type of inner package is used to contain the actual liquid.\u00a0To give you an idea, Part 1 refers to using glass inners, Part 2 refers to using metal or polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) inners, Part 3 refers to using drums or composite packaging(s), and Part 4 talks about using pressure receptacles.\u00a0This long set of instructions actually became quite simple when I learned that the bromine was being shipped in 0.5 L glass bottles.<\/p>\n I definitely didn\u2019t even want to consider transferring the material to something else for several reasons.\u00a0First off, it is really nasty and would pose a threat to my body and those around me. Keeping it in the same bottle also avoids the headache of considering compatibility questions between the bromine and the inner means of containment that we would create by transferring it to a new inner package. The manufacturer has been packaging it in glass without incident so we\u2019ll stick with that. In this case, this also ensured that the closures are sealed properly.<\/p>\n Combination packaging(s) with a maximum gross mass of 25 kg, consisting of one or more glass inner packaging(s) with a maximum capacity of 1.3 litres each and filled to no more than 90% of their capacity; the closure(s) of which shall be physically held in place by any means capable of preventing back-off or loosening by impact or vibration during transport, individually placed in:<\/em><\/p>\n * Metal or rigid plastics receptacles together with cushioning and absorbent materials sufficient to absorb the entire contents of the glass inner packaging(s), further packed in:<\/em><\/p>\n *\u00a01A1, 1A2, 1B1, 1B2, 1N1, 1N2, 1H1, 1H2, 1D, 1G, 4A, 4B, 4N, 4C1, 4C2, 4D, 4F, 4G, or 4H2 outer packagings.<\/em><\/p>\n \nIn order to ensure that the bottles were filled to not more than 90% capacity, I needed to contact the manufacturer.\u00a0Within two days I had confirmation in writing that the bottles are not more than 90% full.\u00a0After that it was smooth sailing and packaging as per usual. Each bottle was put into a bag, each bag in a paint can along with vermiculite, each paint can in another bag, and each of those got put into separate 4GV boxes, again using vermiculite.\u00a0Packages were marked and labeled and a document was written.<\/p>\n One good thing to take out of this exercise is to not be overwhelmed, even when faced with a new set of instructions that seems very intricate.<\/p>\n Know what you are working with before you start your work.\u00a0 Read the MSDS and think about what you would do if an accident happened. In my case, I explained the potential hazards to all colleagues who might pass through the area with the dangerous goods.\u00a0During the two days when we were awaiting confirmation about the bottle capacity, we kept the bottles in our warehouse.\u00a0Nobody moved the packages containing the bromine because we planned ahead of time to dedicate an area for it with no foot traffic.<\/li>\n We get out-of-the-ordinary requests all the time.\u00a0 These are what help us learn, while keeping us interested.\u00a0 If you decide to tackle a project, just ensure that you are in compliance with the relevant regulations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What does one do when the need to ship something outside the realm of “ordinary” arises? Last month I had…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12544,"featured_media":5174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2421,5071,5072,5078,5080,5085,5091],"tags":[2432,2496,2594,2624,2643,2738],"class_list":["post-2266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized-en","category-sea-transportation","category-workplace-safety","category-imdg","category-osha","category-un-packaging","category-sds-workplace","tag-packaging","tag-shipping","tag-imdg-code","tag-shipping-dangerous-goods","tag-imdg","tag-dg-shipping"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nUN 1744, BROMINE, CLASS 8(6.1), PG I<\/p>\nHere is what the section about glass bottles said:<\/h3>\n
Lets break this down:<\/h3>\n
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If you are faced with a similar situation, I would suggest the following:<\/h3>\n
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