IATA Guidance  Document – Specification of Hazard Labels

The UN Sub-Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods and the ICAO Dangerous Goods Panel have recognised that the width of a line on a label does not impact on safety. The requirement for a line of at least 2 mm in thickness for hazard labels is proving problematic, particularly for air transport. Therefore, the UN Model Regulations, the ICAO Technical Instructions and IATA DGR will formally remove reference to the thickness of the line on hazard labels with effect from 1 January 2019.

To this end, IATA have issued a guidance note advising that the dangerous goods acceptance check should not consider the thickness of the line (see attached hazard-label-specification-en).

This includes the following:

“Until the provisions of the IATA DGR are formally changed the dangerous goods acceptance check should not consider the thickness of the line and instead any variation should be treated as a minor variation in accordance with Note 2 under 7.2.2.3.1 which reads as follows:

Minor variations in the design of the symbol on labels or other differences such as the width of vertical lines on labels as shown in these Regulations or in regulations of other modes, which do not affect the obvious meaning of the label, are acceptable. For example, the hand shown on the Class 8 label may be shown with or without shading, the extreme right and left vertical lines on the Division 4.1 and Class 9 label may extend to the edge of the label or there may be some white space at the edge, etc.”