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A ₹20 “Fruit” With a Toxic Profile: The Datura Listings Ban, Explained
Karnataka suspended the food licences of Amazon, Swiggy Instamart, and BigBasket over Datura fruit and seed listings. A look at the plant’s tropane alkaloid toxicology and how the same substance would be classified and segregated under IMDG Code Class 6.1.
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TPO: Banned From Your Nails, Marked as a Marine Pollutant
TPO’s phase-out from UK gel nail products traces back to a single GHS/CLP reclassification. The same molecule also carries its own IMDG Class 9 marine pollutant transport classification — for entirely unrelated reasons. Here’s how the two frameworks intersect.
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Book It Right and Pack It Tight: The Free IMDG Guide Every DG Stakeholder Should Read
A plain-language breakdown of who owes what duty under the IMDG Code, and why “Book It Right and Pack It Tight” — now updated for Amendment 42-24 — belongs at the booking desk and the packing station, not filed away unread.
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Radioactive Cargo by Sea: When IMDG Compliance Is Not Enough
When a charterer offers radioactive cargo, IMDG compliance is only half the question. The half that determines whether your P&I covers you is governed by the UK Nuclear Installations Act 1965 — not the IMDG Code. This article explains the Excepted Matter test, what the four major clubs require, and what happens when a cargo…
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The Making of the IMDG Code: A History of Maritime Dangerous Goods Regulation
A practitioner’s history of how fragmented, voluntary rules for shipping hazardous cargo became today’s mandatory global framework — SOLAS Chapter VII, the IMDG Code, IBC/IGC Codes and IMSBC Code — traced from a 1912 warning in Antwerp to Amendment 42-24.
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The Reverse Battery Problem: Shipping Spent Electric Vehicle Modules Under IMDG Code and Basel Convention
Getting the IMDG classification right on a spent EV battery module is only half the compliance picture. The other half is the Basel Convention — and whether that “damaged/defective” call also just triggered a Prior Informed Consent requirement.
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Battery Management Systems: The Engineering Layer Behind Lithium Battery Safety at Sea
A battery management system is the first line of defence against lithium battery fires at sea. Here’s what a BMS does, whether it’s mandatory, and how UN 38.3 and the IMDG Code actually require it — in practice, if not by name.
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From Bedroom to Bulk Carrier: What Lithium Battery Fires Are Really Teaching Us
Thermal runaway in lithium-ion batteries has killed people from a London bedroom to a Pacific cargo ship. This fact-checked article traces every documented incident back to the fire service, flag-state investigation, or marine insurer that reported it, and draws out exactly what each one teaches — about the batteries themselves, not just the regulations that…
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Fumigated Cargo Transport Units at Sea: IMDG 5.5.2, UN 3359 and the Ventilated/Non-Ventilated Divide
Following on from our ISPM 15 wood packaging article — what happens once the container itself, not just the pallet inside it, has been fumigated for its sea voyage.
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The Ethanol Blending Conundrum in India: Separating Social Media Myths from Dangerous Goods Reality
E20 ethanol-blended petrol has changed more than mileage. It has reclassified India’s fuel from UN 1203 to UN 3475 — and carmakers, storage terminals, and firefighters all need to respond differently.
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Understanding Proper Shipping Names for Lithium Ion Batteries
Why three proper shipping names — and why it matters Lithium ion batteries appear in the IMDG Code Dangerous Goods List under two UN numbers and three distinct proper shipping names. Each entry is a separate regulatory category with its own packaging obligations, marking requirements, and documentation rules. Using the wrong name is not a…
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Understanding Limited and Excepted Quantities in IMDG Code
Limited Quantities (LQ) and Excepted Quantities (EQ) are two distinct relaxation regimes under the IMDG Code — and they are not interchangeable. Both reduce the regulatory burden on small packages of dangerous goods. But the packaging rules, marks, documentation wording, and quantity limits are governed by entirely separate logic. READING THE CODE CORRECTLY: Dangerous Goods…
IMDG Code Compliance Centre
Safety at Sea
