Hazard Label Specification – Thickness of the Lines

A determination on the Hazard Label Specification – Thickness of the Lines has been made. Delayed adoption of the revised specification for Hazard Labels into many national regulations meant that it has largely only been air transport where there has been a requirement for hazard labels with the 2 mm line.After consideration, the UN Subcommittee and the ICAO Dangerous Goods Panel have determined that the thickness of the line on hazard labels has no bearing on safety, and the provisions in the ICAO Technical Instructions and IATA DGR will formally remove reference to the thickness of the line on hazard labels with effect 1 January 2019.

Until the provisions of the DGR 7.2.2.3.2(a) are formally changed the dangerous goods acceptance check should not consider the thickness of the line and instead any variation should be treated as a minor variation in accordance with Note 2 under 7.2.2.3.1 which reads as follows: Minor variations in the design of the symbol on labels or other differences such as the width of vertical lines on labels as shown in these Regulations or in regulations of other modes, which do not affect the obvious meaning of the label, are acceptable. For example, the hand shown on the Class 8 label may be shown with or without shading, the extreme right and left vertical lines on the Division 4.1 and Class 9 label may extend to the edge of the label or there may be some white space at the edge, etc.

Guidance Document

The IATA guidance document advising that the dangerous goods acceptance check should not consider the thickness of the line can be found HERE

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