{"id":4625,"date":"2014-09-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nvlogistics.com\/2014\/09\/shipping-biological-substances-switzerland\/"},"modified":"2017-07-18T23:13:24","modified_gmt":"2017-07-18T21:13:24","slug":"shipping-biological-substances-switzerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nvlogistics.com\/fr\/shipping-biological-substances-switzerland\/","title":{"rendered":"Shipping biological substances | Are you reckless or overcautious ? (1\/3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Different shades of grey.<\/h2>\n

Recently, a British mother was convicted for letting her 10 year old daughter walk to school on her own. The current interpretation of the law accused her of being reckless<\/i>.<\/p>\n

At the same time, many educators and psychologist fear that by being overprotective <\/i>we deprive our children of essential pillars necessary for growing into autonomous and self-confident human beings.<\/p>\n

Doing the right thing.<\/h2>\n

Doing the right thing requires our active attention.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0OK\u201d choices can be made by understanding the law and the rules, and by applying these rigidly.<\/p>\n

But optimal <\/i>decisions \u2013 the ones most of us seek \u2013 happen when we place a given challenge into its proper context, when we draw from the richness of our experience and when we\u2019re confident enough to trust our sound judgement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Reverting back from parenting to the world of shipping biological substances, doing the right thing is of utmost importance.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re reckless<\/b> we endanger the environment and our fellow human beings. As an organisation, we lay ourselves open costly incidents and legal penalties. In the worst case, we could even bring a company to its knees.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re overprotective<\/b>, we over engage already tight resources such as time and money, hence depriving our company of precious resources that may be better allocated elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The secret is in the Classification<\/h2>\n

When talking with clients, we\u2019ve found that appropriate Classification<\/b> is one of the most challenging aspects of shipping biomedical materials.<\/p>\n

The rules and regulations pertaining to the transportation of biological substances and infectious materials are increasingly complex.<\/p>\n

Together with heightened enforcement and penalties, companies in the life sciences industry are seeing this evolution as an issue of concern.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising then that the knee-jerk reaction<\/i> of many internal or external shippers is to take the safe road. And, at first glance, who can blame them?<\/p>\n

The temptation lurks, indeed, to indiscriminately apply the most protective labelling to a shipment, rather than making smart transport decisions based on attentive case by case evaluation.<\/p>\n

When companies favour default shipping over case by case evaluation, they lay themselves open to an exploding transport budget as well as inefficient transport solutions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How not to use a sledge hammer to crack a nut.<\/h2>\n

\"ShippingUnderstanding regulation and applying it judiciously is key to making smart and efficient shipping decisions.<\/p>\n

Please stay with us for our<\/p>\n

\u201cShipping Biological Substances\u201d Tutorial.<\/h4>\n

which is made up of 3 Lessons, and spans over 3 separate articles.<\/p>\n

In this Lesson 1\/1<\/b> we give you a recap of essential labelling and packaging regulations.<\/p>\n

Lesson 2\/3 <\/b><\/a>– It’s all about smart classification\u00a0– takes you through a set of\u00a0concrete action steps.\u00a0These’ll help you make sound classification decisions.<\/p>\n

In Lesson 3\/3 <\/b>– A Case Study (yet to be published)\u00a0–\u00a0<\/b>we use a client example to demonstrate\u00a0the approach we used to achieve optimal classification.<\/p>\n

If you want to receive more\u00a0articles & tutorials straight to your Inbox, please complete the form in the sidebar (top right).<\/p>\n

\"ShippingThe Tutorial – Shipping Biological Substances<\/h2>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lesson 1<\/strong> \u2013 Essential labelling & packaging regulations.<\/h3>\n

The most widely applied regulatory scheme for the transportation of dangerous goods is based on a document put together by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). It is entitled UN Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This document forms the basis for most regional, national and international regulatory schemes.<\/p>\n

It goes without saying that each country in turn has its own set of rules and regulations that complement the founding UN document.<\/p>\n

Swiss regulation specifics<\/h4>\n

For Switzerland, the regulating body is\u00a0the Swiss Federal Council <\/a>itself who issued\u00a0the SDR Regulations<\/a>\u00a0(French, German or Italian version only)\u00a0\u00a0which is mainly based upon the ADR\u00a0Agreement<\/a><\/p>\n

What’s more,\u00a0in accordance with the Ordinance on Safety advisors<\/a>, NV Logistics has appointed an external Security Advisor\u00a0who sets up and monitors\u00a0regulatory compliance of transportation, documentation and packaging of dangerous\u00a0goods.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, most national laws are purposely harmonized with the UN international regulations. This means that in general,\u00a0the requirements for classifying biologicals are standard worldwide.<\/p>\n

The UN document mentioned previously divides dangerous goods into nine classes.<\/p>\n

In this tutorial, we cover Class 6 Toxic and Infectious Substances<\/b><\/a> and even more specifically:<\/p>\n

6.2 Biohazardous (Infectious) substances.<\/h2>\n

\u00a0\"hazardous<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization (WHO) divides this class into two categories: Category A<\/b>: Infectious and Category B<\/b>: Samples (virus cultures, pathology specimens, used intravenous needles).<\/p>\n

Click on the image<\/strong> to download a printable version, for your reference.<\/p>\n

\"Category<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"ADR<\/p>\n

ADR (link)<\/a><\/h3>\n

European regulations concerning the international transport of dangerous goods by road.<\/p>\n

A<\/b>ccord D<\/b>angereux R<\/b>outier (ADR)<\/p>\n

Category A<\/h3>\n

Category A shipments are rare, as there are only a few laboratories in the world authorised to receive such substances.<\/p>\n

Category A covers:<\/b><\/p>\n