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ON SECOND THOUGHTS MULTIMODAL • THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SOME RECENT CHANGES TO ADR AND RID HAS RAISED THE NEED FOR SUBSEQUENT AMENDMENTS TO MAKE THEM EASIER TO APPLY THE SPRING 2019 Joint Meeting of the RID Committee of Experts and the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) Working Party on the Transport of Dangerous Goods (WP15) took place in Bern, Switzerland this past 18 to 22 March. The aim of the meeting was to continue work on the development of amendments that will appear in the 2021 editions of the regulations governing the transport of dangerous goods by rail (RID), road (ADR) and inland waterway (ADN) in Europe and in those
for Railways (ERA), the Organisation for Cooperation between Railways (OSJD) and 11 non-governmental organisations. The first part of this report into the session in last month’s HCB covered those papers that were referred to the working groups on tanks and standards, as well as some ongoing issues. This second part covers the remaining proposals for amendment and reports from informal working groups.
other countries that have adopted or observe those regulations. The meeting was chaired by Claude Pfauvadel (France) with Silvia Garcia Wolfrum (Spain) as vice-chair. It was attended by representatives of 21 full member countries, the European Commission (EC), the EU Agency
NEW PROPOSALS Germany proposed an additional special provision to deal with the carriage of polymerising substances as waste. The existing provisions for polymerising substances require the shipper to determine the self-accelerating polymerisation
HCB MONTHLY | NOVEMBER 2019
temperature (SAPT) and to take the necessary steps to prevent spontaneous polymerisation through the use of inhibitors or stabilisation by means of temperature control. This is not practical when such substances enter the waste stream. Having discussed the matter with the waste disposal sector and having brought it to the attention of the UN Sub-committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods (TDG), Germany now proposed a parallel special provision to state that, for polymerising substances being transported for disposal or recycling, the measures in 7.1.7.3, 7.1.7.4 and 5.4.1.2.3.1 and in special provision 386 need not be complied with, providing that “suitable measures are taken to prevent dangerous polymerisation”. Germany also noted that an informal working group led by the European Federation of Waste Management and Environmental Services (FEAD) had been charged with looking into the carriage of dangerous wastes and would be examining the issue. The plenary agreed that this would be an appropriate step, noting that the working group was due to meet in early April. Switzerland followed up on earlier discussions by WP15 and the RID Committee of Experts on its proposal to amend the
