The TT Club has raised concerns about the ignorance of changes to the legal status of the International Maritime Organization's International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code (IMDG Code).
Transport insurance mutual association TT Club said since the code became mandatory at the beginning of 2004, cargo operators appeared to be unaware of their new responsibilities.
The Club said it was anxious that many organisations still believed the international provisions governing the shipment of dangerous goods by sea represented good practice guidelines, as was the case in some jurisdictions until the end of 2003.
The reality of the IMDG Code, it said, was much more serious.
TT Club director of loss prevention Andrew Webster urged those concerned with the shipment of dangerous goods by sea to ensure compliance with the code, which governs all substances and articles classed as dangerous under the UN's classification system.
