The Hindu Business Line : Hazardous cargoes — Fresh notice to shipping agents on safety norms

IT BEGAN as a normal day for the workers at the busy Sewree Timber Pond-1 (STP-1) at the Mumbai port, when an unlabelled cargo consignment landed. But soon it turned sour for them. After handling the bags for some time, the workers began to feel giddy and weak - some vomited while some had difficulty in walking. They were then admitted to the Mumbai Port hospital.

The reason was not difficult to find — the cargo parcel consisted of hazardous chemicals and the particular shipping agent had not taken adequate precaution, including marking the consignment as `hazardous'.This incident, which occurred some time ago, had prompted the port authorities to send out strict warnings to shipping agents to comply with safety and operational norms for handling dangerous goods. But, this did not have the desired impact.

"There have been a few such untoward incidents, including a couple at the CFS (container freight stations), recently. We have issued a fresh notice to shipping agents to strictly comply with the norms," said a port official.

As per the norms, the shipping agents must declare the nature of the hazardous cargo, prior to the arrival of the vessel. The packages containing dangerous goods should be distinctly marked with the precious technical name, apart from a distinctive label or stencil of label to indicate the dangerous properties of the cargo.

Further, the dock workers have to be given adequate information regarding the nature of the cargo and the necessary protective equipment. Adequate ventilation must be provided at the storage area of cargoes to ensure that the concentration of the gases was safe for the workers. "But in many cases these norms are given the short shrift, resulting in dock workers falling victims to such cargo handling," sources said.

The port recently issued a fresh notice to shipping agents to strictly comply with the safety and operational norms for handling hazardous cargoes. The notice says that ``all dangerous goods should be loaded/unloaded and handled under the supervision of a responsible person who is familiar with the risk of handling such cargoes and in case of any doubts as to the nature of risk and precautions to be taken, the Assistant Manager, Hazardous cargo or Safety Officer should be consulted.''

Further, the port directed that packages containing dangerous goods should be in good condition and should conform to the packaging standards stipulated in the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) code.

According to sources, the port plans to tighten its monitoring mechanism to ensure that regulations are complied by the trade to avoid recurrence of such ``untoward incidents''.