Many people ask what's in the Supplement to the IMDG Code and do they need it?

Hopefully this page will help answer those questions.

The IMDG Code Supplement contains the following:

1. Foreword
2. The EmS Guide: Emergency Response Procedures for Ships Carrying Dangerous Goods
3. Medical First Aid Guide for Use in Accidents Involving Dangerous Goods (MFAG)
4. Reporting Procedures
5. IMO/ILO/UNECE Guidelines for packing of cargo transport units (CTUs)
6. Pesticides
   • Revised Recommendations on the safe use of pesticides in ships
   • Recommendations on the safe use of pesticides in ships applicable to the fumigation of cargo holds
   • Revised Recommendations on the safe use of pesticides in ships applicable to the fumigation of cargo transport units
7. International Code for the Safe Carriage of Packaged Irradiated Nuclear Fuel, Plutonium and High-Level Radioactoive Wastes on board Ships (INF Code)
8. Appendix: Resolutions and circulars to which the IMDG Code and Supplement refer

The EmS Guide: Emergency Response Procedures for Ships Carrying Dangerous Goods

This EmS Guide contains guidance on Emergency Response Procedures for Ships Carrying Dangerous Goods including the Emergency Schedules (EmS) to be followed in case of incidents involving dangerous substances, materials or articles, or harmful substances (marine pollutants), regulated under the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code (IMDG Code).

This edition takes into account the 30th, 31 st, 32nd, 33rd, 3-4th and 35th amendments to the IMDG Code (2010 Edition). The EmS Guide will be further amended as and when necessary to reflect amendments made to the IMDG Code.

Medical First Aid Guide for Use in Accidents Involving Dangerous Goods (MFAG)

The IMO/WHO/lLO Medical First Aid Guide for Use in Accidents Involving Dangerous Goods (MFAG) is the Chemicals Supplement to the International Medical Guide for Ships (IMGS)* which is published by the World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva.


This revised text of the Guide was adopted by the Maritime Safety Committee in May 1998, for use in association with Amendment 30-00 of the IMDG Code, and will be further amended as and when necessary.

Reporting Procedures

General principles for ship reporting systems and ship reporting requirements, including guidelines for reporting incidents involving dangerous goods, harmful substances and/or marine pollutants

1 General principles.
2 Guidelines for reporting incidents involving dangerous goods
3 Guidelines for reporting incidents involving harmful substances and/or marine pollutants
Appendix
Protocol I to MARPOL and Article 8 of MARPOL

IMO/ILO/UNECE Guidelines for packing of cargo transport units (CTUs)

The Maritime Safety Committee of IMO, at its sixty-seventh session (2 to 6 December 1996), approved the IMO/ILO/UNECE Guidelines for packing of cargo transport units (CTUs), which were prepared by the Working Group on Ship/Port Interface (SPI Working Group) in co-operation with the UNECE Working Party on Combined Transport (WP.24), subject to editorial improvements by the UNECE, ILO and IMO Secretariats, if necessary.

The committee instructed the IMO Secretariat to publish the Guidelines,' in co-operation with the UNECE and ILO, after endorsement by these two organizations.

The Guidelines were subsequently endorsed by the Inland Transport Committee of the UNECE in January 1997 and by the Governing Body of the ILO in March 1997 and circulated as MSC/Circ.787, dated 2 May 1997.

These Guidelines, which have been based on the existing IMO/ILO Guidelines for packing cargo in freight containers or vehicles, are applicable to transport operations by all surface and water modes of transport and the whole intermodal transport chain, and supersede the previous IMO/ILO Guidelines.

This edition has been amended to conform with Amendment 31-02 of the IMDG Code.

Pesticides Recommendations

The Recommendations on the safe use of pesticides in ships are intended as a guide to competent authorities, mariners, fumigators, fumigant and pesticide manufacturers and others concerned.

The Recommendations were first circulated in September 1971 and were then revised by the Maritime Safety Committee in 1984, 1993, 1995, 1996 and 2008.

At its eighty-fourth session, in 2008, the Maritime Safety Committee revised those aspects of the Recommendations relating to the fumigation of cargo holds and cargo transport units and approved Recommendations on the safe use of pesticides in ships applicable to the
fumigation of cargo holds, MSC.1/Circ.1264, which superseded the relevant provisions of the Recommendations on the safe use of pesticides in ships, with regard to the fumigation of cargo holds, and Recommendations on the safe use of pesticides in ships applicable to the fumigation of cargo transport units, MSC.1/Circ.1265, which superseded the relevant provisions of Recommendations on the safe use of pesticides in ships, with regard to the fumigation of cargo transport units.

At its eighty-seventh session, in 2010, the Maritime Safety Committee approved:
1 Revised Recommendations on the safe use of pesticides in ships, MSC.1jCirc.1358, which supersedes MSC/Circ.612, as amended by MSC/Circ.689 and MSC/Circ. 746; and

2 Revised Recommendations on the safe use of pesticides in ships applicable to the fumigation ot cargo transport units, MSC.1/Circ.1361, which supersedes MSC.1/Circ.1265.

The Revised Recommendations on the safe use of pesticides in ships, the Recommendations on the safe use of pesticides in ships applicable to the fumigation of cargo holds and the Revised Recommendations on the safe use of pesticides in ships applicable to the fumigation of cargo transport units are recommended to governments in pursuance of their obligations under chapter VI of the 1974 SOlAS Convention as amended

International Code for the Safe Carriage of Packaged Irradiated Nuclear Fuel, Plutonium and High-Level Radioactoive Wastes on board Ships (INF Code)

The International Code for the Safe Carriage of Packaged Irradiated Nuclear Fuel, Plutonium and High-level Radioactive Wastes on board Ships (lNF Code) was adopted by resolution MSC.88(71) on 27 May 1999 after the Maritime Safety Committee had considered earlier resolutions A. 748(18) (Code for the Safe Carriage of Irradiated Nuclear Fuel, Plutonium and High-level Radioactive Wastes in Flasks on board Ships (INF Code)), A. 790(19)
(Review of the INF Code), A.853(20) (Amendments to the INF Code), and A.854(20) (Guidelines for developing shipboard emergency plans for ships carrying materials subject to the INF Code).

The International Code is mandatory under SOLAS 1974 and entered into force on 1 January 2001.

The Code was amended by resolution MSC.118(74) on 6 June 2001 to align it with Amendment 30 of the IMDG Code. The amendment was accepted, and came into force on 1 January 2003. The Code was also amended by resolution MSC.135(76) on 12 December 2002 to align it with amendments to chapter VII of SOLAS.

This amendment was accepted, and entered into force on 1 JUly 2004. The Code was further amended by resolution MSC.178(79). The amendment to the International Certificate of Fitness was accepted and came into force on 1 JUly 2006. Further amendments to the Code were adopted by resolution MSC.241 (83) in Octorber 2007 to alingn it with amendments to Chapter II-1 of SOLAS. These amendments were accepted and entered into force on 1 July 2009.

Appendix: Resolutions and circulars to which the IMDG Code and Supplement refer

This includes
-IMO Assembly Resolutions
-Resolutions of the Maritime Safety Committee
-Circulars of the Maritime Safety Committee and of the Marine Environment Protection Committee
-Circulars of the Facilitation Committee
-Circulars of the Sub-Committee on Dangerous Goods, solid Cargoes and Containers