Section 6 Assessment of mixtures of assessed chemicals with safety hazards

  6.1 This section deals with the mixtures defined in 3.1.3, i.e. those presenting a safety hazard and containing at least 97% by weight of chemicals assessed by IMO, one or more of which presents a safety hazard.

Chemicals assessed by IMO include:

• .1 those listed in chapters 17 and 18 of the IBC Code;

• .2 agreed and proposed amendments to these chapters;

Safety hazard only chemicals are designated by an S in column d of the summary of minimum requirements table. These mixtures contain components with safety hazards (designated by S or S/P in column d of the summary of minimum requirements table) to such an extent that they impart a safety hazard to the final mixture.

  6.2 The pollution category of these mixtures is calculated, as shown in 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4.

  6.3 A tentative ship type, for pollution prevention purposes only, is then calculated, as shown in 5.5.

  6.4 The Administration should then provisionally assess the safety hazards of the mixture and assign carriage requirements, following the guidelines referred to in 4.9 and the interpretation for assigning the minimum carriage requirements for mixtures involving products included in the IBC/BCH Codes for safety reasons, reproduced in annex 10. If necessary, the Administration should revise the tentative ship type assigned in 6.3.

  6.5 The mixtures representing safety hazards, cannot be shipped under "Noxious liquid, n.o.s." generic entries in the code. Therefore an appropriate shipping name will need to be assigned to the mixture. This will identify the principal substances responsible for the safety and pollution (if applicable) hazards of the mixture and may include its trade name.

  6.6 The Administration should now proceed to obtain a tripartite agreement and to inform IMO, as indicated in 4.11 and 4.12.

  6.7 IMO shall review the ship type and carriage requirements provisionally assigned by tripartite agreement and finally include the mixture in the MEPC circular mentioned in 2.8. There is no need for IMO to review the mixture's pollution category, as this is the result of a purely mechanical calculation.

  6.8 The inclusion of these mixtures in the MEPC circular constitutes an assessment by IMO, and hence removes the three-year limitation on the provisional assessment by tripartite agreement.