It’s been a busy summer for our A.I.R. Shipper^TM authoring team. Rolling in the large number of changes developed by ICAO, the UN and the IAEA was a challenge made more difficult with very late changes for lithium metal batteries. In case you hadn’t heard, these will be banned aboard passenger aircraft per the ICAO Technical Instructions effective January 1^st, 2015; this in addition to their already-forbidden status under the US 49 CFR HMR aboard passenger aircraft flying to, from, and through the United States.

Along with other changes to the lithium battery provisions, we’ve consolidated and rationalized the lithium battery packing instructions. Many users don’t realize how often they use the lithium battery provisions. Some even think they’re not regulated! In fact, every battery you take on board an airplane as a passenger must have been manufactured according to a strict standard.

I’d like to be able to say that is the last of the lithium battery changes but from discussions I’ve attended at the UN in Geneva and ICAO, that’s not the case. The most visible change we might see is a modification to the Lithium Battery Handling Label due to concerns about “hazard communication.” It seems there are many people who are unaware that lithium batteries, some of which are illegally manufactured and packaged, are a risk to anyone handling them.

One change that you won’t find in A.I.R. Shipper^TM this year is the dimensional marks for labels and other marks. Some people are unclear just exactly what size their labels should be. Of course, our label experts here at Labelmaster can help you out, just give us a call or drop us an email. All that is to say that with the 2015 Edition of A.I.R. Shipper^TM, we’ve planned a better way of showing users what hazard and handling labels can and cannot look like. The dimensional specifications will be shown in a separate downloadable PDF that will be available in January of 2015. In the mean time, order your 2015 A.I.R. Shipper^TM today!