Definition of Dangerous goods (from wikipedia): solids, liquids, or gases that can harm people, other living organisms, property, or the environment. Dangerous goods include materials that are radioactive, flammable, explosive, corrosive, oxidizing, asphyxiating, biohazardous, toxic, pathogenic, or allergenic. Also included are physical conditions such as compressed gases and liquids or hot materials, including all goods containing such materials or chemicals, or may have other characteristics that render them hazardous in specific circumstances.

Transport of dangerous goods 

Transport of dangerous goods is strictly regulated by international law. The aim of this legislation is to avoid serious accidents and harm to humans, society and environment by unintentional dispersal of dangerous compounds.

At KI, the largest fraction of dangerous goods is the laboratory waste. When laboratory waste is transported from KI to the treatment plants we need to meet the requirements for packing and labelling of dangerous goods. This is one of the reasons why it is important to follow the KI rules for laboratory waste. Only the person that generates the waste knows what the contents are. The waste needs to be correctly packed and labelled to avoid accidents and leakage further down the line of treatment & recycling. Laboratory waste is covered in a separate lecture and assignment.

It is always the sender’s obligation to ensure that conditions required by the legislation are met. Sometimes you may be directly involved in sending what constitutes dangerous goods. Maybe you need to send a particular strain of microorganism to a colleague in a different country or perhaps you need to travel between Huddinge and Solna with your specimen. In these cases, remember the sender’s obligation – you are responsible!

Use the reference material to complete the test. The aim of the test is to give you an overview of the most common types of materials here at KI that are covered by this legislation, and make you familiar with the available KI-resources related to transport of dangerous goods.

Reference material:

How to know whether your sample is classified as dangerous goods

How to pack specimens correctly

List of Category A substances

Transport of dangerous goods and biological specimens

KLARA chemical register