ICAO Dangerous Goods Regulations

Because hazardous materials are transported all over the world onboard airplanes on a daily basis, the ICAO Dangerous Goods Regulations were created in an effort to ensure that highest possible level of safety in this type of commerce.

What Is ICAO?

1. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is an international governing body was founded on Dec. 7, 1944, when 52 nations entered into the Convention on International Civil Aviation treaty in Chicago, Illinois. Its goal is to ensure that international civil airline traffic for peaceful purposes is safe and orderly.
   
   ICAO is a precursor to the United Nations (U.N.). As a matter of fact, its original organizational emblem is the current UN emblem. However, today it is a specialized agency of the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and has more than 180 member nations.
   
   ICAO is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

What Does ICAO Do?

2. The ICAO creates and enforces international law as it relates to civil air transportation. It also has an ongoing process of making sure that all nations abide by and adhere to its international standards and regulations. To this end, the ICAO works with closely with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which is the airline membership equivalent organization that was founded in 1945.
   
   The U.S. government implements and enforces ICAO standards and regulations through agencies within the Department of Transportation and the independent National Transportation Safety Board.

What Are Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR)?

3. Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR) are rules that are derived from Annex 18--the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air--of the Chicago Convention. They are designed to create a worldwide harmonization of safety standards and principles that govern the air transportation of hazardous materials across national borders.
   
   ICAO calls its DGR the Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air, which has a strict requirement that nations inspect and enforce DGR procedures. The IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations is a less strict field manual version of the ICAO Technical Instructions.

How Do DGR Work?

4. The Technical Instructions are detailed instructions that have a special status in international law. The ICAO ensures that nations comply with them through its Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme. The Technical Instructions seem to have become some of the simplest and least controversial set of international law in that all nations strive to cooperate with and commit to them to promote a standardized aviation infrastructure in the world. This has made air transportation the safest mode of mass transportation ever conceived.

How Are DGR Enforced?

5. In the United States, ICAO Technical Instructions are located in the Code of Federal Regulations at Title 49 CFR §§ 172.101 & 173.21. They are enforced by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), an agency of the Department of Transportation that participates in a number of international forums to make sure that U.S. Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) are in line with international standards and regulations.