UNITED

NATIONS	ST

Secretariat	Distr.

GENERAL

ST/SG/AC.10/1998/35

25 September 1998

Original: ENGLISH
COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS ON THE

TRANSPORT OF DANGEROUS GOODS

(Twentieth session,

Geneva, 7-16 December l998,

agenda item 5 (b))

PROGRAMME OF WORK

Programme of work for the 1999/2000 biennium and related proposals

Harmonization of the information codes for the identification of	hazards

and emergency measures for the transport of dangerous goods

Jointly transmitted by

the International Technical Committee for the Prevention and Extinction of Fire (CTIF),

the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC),

the International Road Transport Union (IRU)

and the International Union of Railways (UIC)

The four organizations mentioned above are of the opinion that harmonizing on a worldwide basis the principles of the coding systems for hazard identification and emergency response would be beneficial in terms of simplicity and, by that way, for safety.

At present emergency services in many countries all over the world have to work with different coding and information systems, such as:

-	the North-American Response Guide System;

-	the EMS Code from International Maritime Organization (IMO );

-	the Hazchem System from the United Kingdom;

-	the Hazard Identification Number according to RID/ADR;

etc.

GE.98-

Proposal for the harmonization procedure:

-	Analysis of the existing systems and their criteria for the allocation of codes

-	Assessment of the conformity of the allocation systems with the classification criteria of UN

-	Design of a code which is most user-friendly for emergency services and other participants involved in the transport of dangerous goods

The four organizations associated in this proposal suggest to the Committee to take the decision to introduce the project into the future work programme and they are prepared to accomplish the outlined research work needed for the proposed harmonization.

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