Government authorities in China and elsewhere in the world need to start cracking down now on shippers who continue to violate regulations covering the shipment of lithium batteries by air.
Otherwise, there is a real possibility that a current worldwide ban on those potentially dangerous goods being carried on board passenger aircraft could be extended to also include freighter operations.
That, at least, is the implied warning being voiced by some international air transport bodies as they battle to secure greater compliance with those regulations and more widespread government-backed enforcement action against those parties which break the rules.
Concerns over the dangers to aircraft associated with shipping lithium batteries as cargo, specifically the risk of an on-board fire, have gained increasing prominence over the last few years.
Last year, for example, the US Federal Aviation Administration issued a safety alert to all commercial passenger and cargo airlines, urging them to conduct a safety risk assessment to manage the risks associated with transporting lithium batteries as cargo.
In a statement accompanying that move, the organisation reported: “FAA battery fire testing has highlighted the potential risk of a catastrophic aircraft loss due to damage resulting from a lithium battery fire or explosion. Current cargo fire suppression systems cannot effectively control a lithium battery fire.”
Around the same time, the US National Transportation Safety Board issued two safety recommendations advising the physical separation of lithium batteries from other flammable hazardous materials stowed on cargo aircraft and the establishment of maximum loading density requirements which restrict the quantities of lithium batteries and flammable hazardous materials.
Explaining the background to those recommendations, that body warned that lithium batteries carried as cargo could be “a fire and explosion ignition source, a source of fuel to an existing fire, and subjected to overheating could create an explosive condition.”
The continuing general issues surrounding the shipment of lithium batteries by air – and specifically, the failure of some governments to enforce relevant regulations – were most recently highlighted at the International Air Transport Association’s 11th World Cargo Symposium in Abu Dhabi.
Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director general and CEO, told the event that rogue shippers and manufacturers of lithium batteries were creating “real” risks to air transport safety.
“Effective global standards exist to safely ship lithium batteries – and governments, working with industry, have the regulatory framework in place to support the standards. The problem is that the regulations are not being enforced. We still see too many examples of abuse, including mislabelling of batteries,” he said.
De Juniac went on to explain that IATA had joined with partners in the battery industry, as well as with shippers and forwarders, in a joint effort to ask governments to step up and take a tougher stance. “They have the power to impose significant fines and custodial sentences on those violating the regulations. We ask that they put these in place to stop the violations.”
He added that in parallel with those efforts, IATA was also working to better educate the shipping community on the importance of following dangerous goods regulations.
Outlining the background to that issue in an interview with Asia Cargo News at the end of March, Dave Brennan, assistant director, Cargo Safety and Standards, at IATA, pointed out that the International Civil Aviation Organization had last year banned all shipments of lithium-ion batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft until it established a new lithium battery packaging performance standard, a development currently expected by 2018. That interim ban followed the earlier implementation of a similar prohibition relating to lithium metal batteries at the beginning of 2015.
“Just to be clear, those bans only apply to batteries being shipped as cargo, not when you have batteries installed or packed with devices,” Brennan said.
Meanwhile, IATA itself has issued updated guidance for 2017 regarding the transport by air of lithium metal and lithium-ion batteries, both as cargo and installed in/with devices, based on the provisions set out in the 2017-2018 Edition of the ICAO Technical Instruction for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air (Technical Instructions) and the 58th Edition of the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR).
Going in to more detail about the problems arising from non-compliance with existing regulations relating to the shipment of lithium batteries by air, Brennan said the key concerns for IATA were people who deliberately sought to get around those rules and the lack of enforcement action taken against them.
“We understand that people make mistakes but they should be made aware of those and, depending on the severity of the breach, the regulatory authority concerned should decide whether to take appropriate action,” he said.
“Where we see the need for very strong action, though, is where there are very deliberate breaches of the regulations – and we are continuing to see those. People are, frankly, lying about what is in their consignment, for example claiming they are telephone accessories or soft toys with no batteries.”
However, continued Brennan, efforts to deal with such issues had to involve more than just the air transport industry. “The civil aviation authorities alone cannot really solve this. It also needs cross-government coordination, for example with the ministry responsible for manufacturing standards or consumer protection, depending on the country concerned.”
Asked whether there were any individual countries where such issues were particularly prominent at present, Brennan commented that while “it is easy to point the finger at China because it is such a large manufacturer of lithium batteries,” the problem was not limited to that country.
“We certainly see shippers in other parts of the world, either through ignorance or otherwise, flouting the regulations on this. Certainly, when we come to e-commerce, it is a global issue. There are shippers of lithium batteries everywhere in the world who either don’t know or don’t care about the regulations and will happily send their goods as cargo or through the post in breach of those rules,” he stated.
The continuing scale of such non-compliance has already led to suggestions in some quarters than the current ban on lithium batteries being shipped as cargo on passenger aircraft could be extended to also cover freighter operations.
Brennan confirmed such a development was a genuine possibility. “At ICAO, there is considerable pressure to address the risk of fires from lithium batteries on cargo aircraft. It is definitely an issue which has to be resolved,” he said.
By Phil Hastings
Europe Correspondent | London
