According to international rules, dangerous goods should be considered those that, during movement, can cause harm to the environment, for example, lead to the destruction of objects or cause a threat to the health and life of living beings. Therefore, for the transportation of specialized goods, containers must be used and certain conditions must be created.
The first stage of preparing cargo for shipment is always determining its class, classification code and, accordingly, choosing the form of its packaging. These questions are especially important because getting them wrong can have serious consequences.
Classes of goods that are classified as dangerous
The following classes for dangerous goods should be distinguished:
- First class: explosive materials and substances that can cause fires.
- Second class: all types of gases, including those that are not flammable, easily flammable and poisonous.
- Third class: types of mixtures and liquids that may ignite under certain conditions.
- Fourth class: materials in the solid state that can spontaneously ignite or, when exposed to liquids, begin to emit gas capable of spontaneous combustion.
- Fifth class: various substances capable of oxidation, as well as peroxides of organic origin.
- Sixth grade: poisons and infections that are dangerous to the health and life of living beings.
- Seventh class: radioactive materials or substances.
- Eighth class: acids, acid solutions, alkaline solutions and any other caustic substances that can cause corrosive processes or damage the tissues of living beings.
- Ninth class: all types of substances and materials that require additional special conditions during transportation.
Some goods may belong to several classes at once, and this information must be marked on the transport container using special methods for marking goods that are classified as dangerous.
Marking of goods that are classified as dangerous
Marking of goods performs a very important function: it warns people who are directly related to the goods of danger. Also, with the help of marking, you can find out what conditions need to be created for certain cargoes so that they do not create a dangerous situation for living beings.
For the purpose of marking cargo, a special system of classification codes was created, with the help of which each dangerous type of cargo was assigned a specific letter or a combination of letters and numbers.
More information about the classification and labeling of cargo can be obtained at customs website.
