UNITED

NATIONS	ST

Secretariat	Distr.

GENERAL

ST/SG/AC.10/1998/42

25 September 1998

Original: ENGLISH
COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS ON THE

TRANSPORT OF DANGEROUS GOODS

(Twentieth session,

Geneva, 7-16 December l998,

agenda item 2 (d))

WORK OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS

ON THE TRANSPORT OF DANGEROUS GOODS

Miscellaneous draft amendments to the Model Regulations

on the Transport of Dangerous Goods

New proposals

Chemically unstable substances falling under n.o.s. entries

Transmitted by the Observer from Austria

Where the name for a certain substance or article in the Dangerous Goods List contains - in capital letters - the word "stabilized" this means not only that precautionary measures are laid down in respect of that substance or article (see para 3.1.1.4 of the model regulations) but it conveys as part of the proper shipping name in the documentation important information for the carrier, consignee, emergency services and others that the product may have a SADT and that the stabilizing agent may have reduced effect after a long journey or stay etc.

As the explosion of a rail tank wagon containing cyanamide on a very hot summer day at the premises of an enterprise in our country showed, the information about the potential instability of this substance would have been quite useful. Since this substance is covered however under the n.o.s. - position UN 2810 "TOXIC LIQUID, ORGANIC, N.O.S." and under the presently applicable provisions was correctly classified and details entered in the transport documentation according to its toxic properties as packing group III, no one was aware of its potential high risk from chemical unstability.

GE.98-

Paragraphs 3.1.2.4 and 3.1.2.5 of the model regulations provide already for other situations where certain important information is not contained in the proper shipping name and we therefore propose a similar text as follows:

Proposal:

Insert in Chapter 3.1. a new paragraph 3.1.2.6 (and renumber the following paragraphs):

"3.1.2.6 Unless it is already included in capital letters in the name indicated in the Dangerous Goods List, the word "STABILIZED" or "INHIBITED" shall be added as part of the proper shipping name when a substance is offered for transport or transported stabilized or inhibited."

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