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lunes, 8 de agosto de 2011

IMDG Code and Marine Pollutants

Voluntary implementation of the new requirements for the carriage of dangerous goods in packaged form that are characterized as marine pollutants began on 1st January 2009. Their mandatory implementation, however, begins one year later, on 1st January 2010 with the parallel entry into force of the revised Annex III of MARPOL and the amendment 34-08 of the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code, known as IMDG Code.
Cargoes characterized as marine pollutants and classified into one of the 1 to 8 hazard classes of the IMDG Code (explosives, gases, flammable liquids, flammable solids, oxidizing, toxic an infectious, radioactive or corrosive substances) must be transported under the appropriate requirements of the respective class. If they do not fail under any of these classes, then they should be transported under for entry Environmentally Hazardous Substance.
The marine pollutant mark is shown below the dimensions of which for packaging such as IBC containers, barrels, etc., shall be at least 100 mm x 100 mm and for cargo transport units at least 250 mm x 250 mm.
A substance is characterized as a marine pollutant it the symbol P is indicated in the index of the IMDG Code, or in the absence of this indication, its producer or consignor has evaluated and classified it as a marine pollutant.
Response to pollution incidents involving marine pollutants is quite different from that of oil. These substances behave in a different way and they do not always remain on the sea surface to form a spill but they can rapidly evaporate, sink or suspend with the water column.
There are three basic criteria that characterize a substance as marine pollutant: toxicity, bloaccumulation and degradation into the marine environment.
The toxicity is determined in the laboratory as the concentration or a substance in the water that causes death to 50% of tested fish in 96 hours. If the substance to water radio is less than 1mg/lt, or in other words less 1 ppm, then the substance under testing is considered as toxic. If the ratio is between 1 and 10 mg/lt, then the other two criteria of bioaccumulation and degradation area also taken into account.
Bioaccumulation is he property of a substance in the water to accumulate in the marine organisms at the upper levels of the food pyramid due to exposure to this substance or through feeding.
Degradation is the natural decomposition of a substance either by the activity of microorganisms at sea or chemical processes such as hydrolysis and oxidation. Generally, a substance is considered as readily biodegradable in the marine environment as long as its mass shrinks at least 70% within a 28 day period after being introduced into the sea.


Recopilado
Capt
Guillermo Parra Avello
Mayo 2011

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