Transportation of Batteries and Battery- Powered Devices

Safety advisory for transporting these items on aircraft

An alert from PHMSA and the FAA on recent incidents aboard aircraft involving lithium battieries catching fire and other potential hazards during transportation.

Safety Advisory alert from PHMSA regarding lithium batteries

PHMSA issues safety advisory to shippers and carriers to insure the safe transportation of lithium batteries. A safety advisory published October 7, 2009 states that many persons who are shipping lithium batteries are not recognizing potential hazards that exist during transportation.

The purpose of the safty advisory was to provide information on recent aviation incidents involving fires, provide information on current requirments and actions that have been taken to prevent future incidents.

Background

Lithium Battieries are considered hazardous materials in transportation because they present chemical and electrical hazards. Defective batteries, batteries that misused, mishndled, improperly packaged, improperly stored, improperly manufactored or overcharged can overheat and ignite and once ignited, fires can be difficult to extinguish.

Since 1991 there have been over 40 air transportation related incidents involving lithium batteries and devices powered by lighium batteries. The FAA website provides a list of incidents. These incidents occurred aboard passenger aircraft and cargo aircraft, prior to loading batteries aboard an aircraft, and after batteries were transported by air. Many of the incidents were directly related to a lack of awareness of the required safety measures applicable to shipments of lithium batteries or because passengers failed to follow preventative measures to protect batteries from short circuit or damage.

Current Requirments

The Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR parts 171-180) include requirements for packaging, hazard communication and handling lithium batteries. For transportation by all modes, lithium batteries of all types and sizes must pass a series of tests outlined in the UN Manual of Tests and Criteria. These tests are designed to ensure the battery can withstand the conditions typically encountered in transportation. In addition, all batteries must be packaged to prevent short circuits, including movement that could lead to short circuits and damage to the batteries (See Sec. 172.102(c) SP 188, 189 and Sec. 173.185).

The regulations also impose additional restrictions on the transport of lithium batteries in the air mode, including a limited prohibition on the transport of lithium metal batteries as cargo on board passenger aircraft (See Sec. 172.102(c) SP A100). Additionally, damaged, defective or recalled lithium batteries (including those being returned to the manufacturer as part of a safety recall) should not be transported aboard aircraft. Recommended practices for preparing recalled batteries for ground transportation are set forth in ``DOT Guidance for the Safe Transportation of Recalled Lithium Batteries,'' available for download at http://safetravel.dot.gov/downloads.html.

When a package contains multiple lighium cells or batteries the package must be marked to indicate its contents and  acommpanied by a document that gives special procedures that should be followed in the event of damage to the package.

Current and future efforts

To enhance understanding and compliance with the HMR, PHMSA and the FAA initiated several public outreach efforts designed to connect with both the travelling public and the larger shipping community. Since 2007 we have published numerous safety advisories, created the SafeTravel Web site dedicated to providing information to the air travelling public on the safe transport of a variety of materials including lithium batteries and partnered with airlines, battery manufacturers and others to spread our safety message. Additionally, the PHMSA Hazardous Materials Safety Assistance Team initiated an outreach campaign. As part of this campaign, team members visited retailers and others involved in the production, distribution and sale of lithium batteries. During their visits, team members provided kits on how to provide information on the safe shipment of lithium batteries and encouraged those persons the team visited to include the SafeTravel link on their Web sites. In March 2009, DOT published ``Shipping Batteries Safely by Air; What You Need to Know,'' targeting infrequent shippers who may be unfamiliar with appropriate packing methods. This guide explains the regulations covering the classification, packaging and hazard communication requirements for the transportation of batteries shipped by aircraft in terms easy to understand.

This is the short version of the safety advisory, you can obtain the more detailed version on DOT's hazmat safety website (PHMSA). If you have more specific quesitons you can call them at 1-800-467-4922 or if you're in Washington, D.C. 1-202-366-4488.