A Recommendation on Safe Practice on Dangerous Goods in
Ports and Harbours was first circulated by the Organization in November
1973.
The subsequent development of new techniques in shore and
ship operations, as well as the desirability of having more comprehensive
recommendations which included dangerous goods in packaged form, liquid
and solid dangerous substances and liquefied gas carried in bulk,
made it necessary to revise and update the Recommendation.
The Recommendation which was originally adopted as resolution
A.289 (VIII), has been revised on several occasions and circulated
as MSC/Circ.299 (12 February 1981), MSC/Circ.299/Add.1 (8 July 1983)
and MSC/Circ.675 (30 January 1995).
The 1995 edition of the Recommendations included necessary
updates and some novel features, the most important of which was guidance
for the implementation of the Recommendations by those Member States
which were in the process of developing the regulation of the transport
of dangerous goods and related activities in their ports.
In 1996, the Maritime Safety Committee agreed that the IMDG
Code should be reformatted in a style consistent with the format of
the UN Model Regulations with the intention of enhancing user-friendliness,
compliance with the regulations and the safe transport of dangerous
goods.
At its seventy-fifth session in May 2002, the Maritime Safety
Committee confirmed its earlier decision to make the IMDG Code mandatory
in international law. Thus, IMDG Code Amendment 31 became mandatory
on 1 January 2004 without any transitional period under the umbrella
of chapters VI and VII of SOLAS 74, as amended.
The Recommendations are aligned with relevant IMO codes
and the IMDG Code in particular. It is considered essential to harmonize
the rules within the port area with the ship in order to ensure smooth
operations and to avoid misunderstandings between ship and shore.
The Recommendations make a distinction between keeping and
storage. Dangerous cargoes temporarily in the port area as part of
the transport chain are not considered as being stored as their presence
is solely concerned with awaiting loading onto and further onward
movement by another mode of transport. Because this is an operation
covered by the Recommendations, the term “keeping” is
included in the overall definition of handling. Storage, which involves
the holding of substances for an indeterminate period not directly
involved with the transportation process, is considered to be outside
the scope of these Recommendations and has been excluded from the
definitions. Regulatory authorities may wish to regulate the storage
of such substances but that would be achieved by other regulations
unconnected with the transportation process.
For the purpose of these Recommendations the term “cargo
interests” refers to those organizations which can be involved
with the dangerous cargoes even before such cargoes reach the port
area and a ship, and also includes consignors (shippers), packers,
those concerned with documentation, consolidators and forwarding agents.
Experience has shown that this group has a crucial role to play in
the safe transport of dangerous cargoes and that the Recommendations
should also apply to them.
It is important to draw to the attention of the users of
these Recommendations that the term “dangerous cargo”
comprises oils, noxious liquid chemicals and gases carried in bulk,
solid bulk materials possessing chemical hazards, solid bulk materials
hazardous only in bulk, harmful substances in packaged form (covered
by Annex III of MARPOL 73/78) as
well as dangerous goods in packaged form (covered by the IMDG Code).
Throughout the Recommendations the terms defined in chapter
2 have been highlighted in bold italic type.
A non-exhaustive glossary of relevance to the handling of
dangerous cargoes is given in appendix
1 to this document.