The US Coast Guard (USCG) has issued a warning to the shipping industry about the extreme risk of loading electric vehicles (EV) with damaged lithium-ion batteries onto commercial vessels.
Marine Safety Alert 01-23, published by USCG, addresses the issue and provides recommendations to vessels, ports, shippers and regulators. The safety alert comes just a few months after Hurricane Ian made landfall in South Florida. In the aftermath of the intense and destructive storm, first responders encountered numerous EV fires where investigations have subsequently determined were caused by exposure of the lithium-ion batteries to saltwater. Continue reading “The advice from the US Coast Guard is to avoid loading electric vehicles with saltwater damage on ships”
Aluminium phosphide, the precursor compound from which phosphine gas is generated, is available in different forms and can be supplied in aluminium bottles as tablets of about 3g each or as pellets of about 1g. Alternatively it can be supplied in fabric ‘socks’ or strips of cojoined paper sachets which enable the fumigant residues to be easily removed in the situation where it is undesirable to have fumigation residue remaining in the cargo. Generally, and as a rule of thumb, Degesch state that one 3g tablet of aluminium phosphide formulation will generate about 1g of phosphine gas.
As part of this project, the two partners, The European Community Shipowners’ Association (
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (
New Zealand port safety has taken an important step forward when employers, unions, the Port Industry Association and government regulators, working together as the Port Health and Safety Leadership Group, published detailed new guidelines for setting up a fatigue risk management system.