IBC Code up for review?

The International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) Working Group on the Evaluation of Safety and Pollution Hazards (ESPH) agreed at its October 2011 session to propose to the Sub-Committee on Bulk Liquids and Gases (BLG) that a systematic review of the International Bulk Chemical (IBC) Code be carried out. The aim of the review will be to improve consistency in the carriage requirements of the cargoes listed in Chapters 17 and 18. 

There has been growing concern that the Code is now effectively operating a two-tier system, with cargoes evaluated in recent years being in many cases subject to far more stringent carriage requirements than comparable cargoes that were evaluated before the changes introduced as part of the revision of Annex II of the International convention for the prevention of pollution by ships (Marpol). During that revision process, all the existing GESAMP Hazard Profiles were amended to bring them into line with the criteria of the Globally Harmonised System of classification and labelling of chemicals (GHS), but largely with respect to pollution issues. New cargoes evaluated subsequently have been subject to far more extensive assessment. It is thought that if all the cargoes listed in the IBC Code were to be reviewed on safety grounds as well as pollution criteria, then a number would be restricted to higher ship and/or tank types.

Assuming that BLG agrees to instruct the ESPH Working Group to carry out the exercise, the review will concentrate on safety requirements, taking into account any errors identified in the pollution requirements. One of the prime triggers of reclassification is likely to be acute toxicity but there have been questions about how appropriate this is to the classification of cargoes for transport by sea in bulk. Certainly, products with a low vapour pressure may present a significantly lower hazard in terms of inhalation toxicity. The International Parcel Tankers Association (IPTA) says it would make far more sense to ensure that extra measures of an operational nature are put in place during loading and discharge, when contact with the product is most likely to occur.