Dry Ice, Consumer Commodity (ID 8000) & Class-Specific Packing Provisions

Dry Ice, Consumer Commodity (ID 8000) & Class-Specific Packing Provisions

Section 5 of the IATA DGR is not a flat list of packing instructions. Requirements arrive in three layers, and a package is only compliant when all three are satisfied. This section explains the layering, then works through the two Class 9 entries that appear in more consignments than any other: dry ice and Consumer Commodity.

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1. The Three Layers of Packing Requirements

   LAYER 1: GENERAL PACKING REQUIREMENTS (Section 5.0.2)
   Quality, closure, compatibility, ullage, absorbent, 95 kPa differential
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   LAYER 2: CLASS-SPECIFIC GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
   Printed at the front of each class's packing instruction block
   (e.g. Class 1 before PI 101; Class 2 before PI 200; Class 7 in Section 10)
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   LAYER 3: THE PACKING INSTRUCTION ITSELF
   Permitted inners and outers, quantity limits, additional packing requirements

A shipper who reads only the packing instruction will miss the class-level rules — for example the requirement that a cylinder be filled, tested and periodically re-inspected, or that an infectious substance package be built as a triple packaging. Read all three layers, in order, every time.

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2. Dry Ice — Carbon Dioxide, Solid (UN 1845, Class 9)

Dry ice sublimates directly from solid to gas at about -78.5°C, producing a large volume of carbon dioxide from a small mass of solid. That single physical fact generates all of its transport rules.

The Two Hazards

1. Asphyxiation. Carbon dioxide displaces oxygen. Accumulation in an enclosed hold, in a ground handling vehicle, or on a flight deck is a crew hazard, which is why the total mass carried is limited by the aircraft type's ventilation capability.
2. Overpressure. A gas-tight container will pressurise and burst as the solid sublimates.

Packing and Marking Rules

• The packaging must permit the release of carbon dioxide gas. Sealed, gas-tight, or hermetically closed packagings are prohibited — this is the reverse of the closure rule for almost every other dangerous good.
• The package must be marked with UN 1845 and the Proper Shipping Name Carbon dioxide, solid or Dry ice, and must bear the Class 9 hazard label.
• The net mass of dry ice in kilograms must be marked on the package. Ground staff and load planners add these figures to check the aircraft's dry ice limit, so the marking is an operational input, not paperwork.
• The packaging must be designed and constructed to prevent pressure build-up that could rupture it, and to permit the coolant to be retained if it liquefies where relevant.

The Documentation Split

The paperwork depends entirely on what the dry ice is cooling:

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3. Consumer Commodity — ID 8000

ID 8000, Consumer Commodity is an air-specific Class 9 entry. It exists so that retail-packaged articles containing small quantities of dangerous goods — aerosols, perfumes, medicinal preparations, nail varnish, some cleaning products — can move under reduced provisions rather than as individual fully regulated entries.

Distinguishing Features

• It carries an ID number, not a UN number, because ICAO and IATA assigned it for air transport rather than the UN Committee of Experts assigning it for all modes. It is written ID 8000, never UN 8000.
• Its quantity limit in Columns J and L is expressed with a G suffix, meaning the figure is a gross mass — the total weight of the completed package as presented for transport, not the net weight of the dangerous goods inside it.
• Because the limit is a gross mass, the gross mass is what goes on the Shipper's Declaration for that entry. Declaring a net quantity against a G limit is a classic acceptance rejection.

The Gross Mass Notation Generally

The G suffix is not unique to ID 8000. Wherever Column J or Column L shows a quantity followed by G — commonly for Class 1 explosives, articles, and consumer commodities — the figure is the gross mass of the package and the declaration must be completed on that basis. Where no G appears, the figure is the net quantity of dangerous goods only, excluding inner packagings, absorbent, cushioning and the outer box.

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4. Applying the Layers: A Worked Check

A shipper offers one fibreboard box containing frozen diagnostic specimens that are not dangerous goods, packed with 8 kg of dry ice.

1. Layer 1 — general packing requirements: the outer packaging must be of good quality and adequately closed, but must not be gas-tight.
2. Layer 2 — Class 9 general requirements apply.
3. Layer 3 — the dry ice packing instruction sets the design and venting conditions.
4. Marking — UN 1845, Dry ice, Class 9 label, and Net weight 8 kg of dry ice.
5. Documentation — no Shipper's Declaration is needed because the contents being cooled are not dangerous goods. The Air Waybill handling information must read: UN 1845, Dry ice, 9, 1 package, net weight 8 kg.
6. Operational — the 8 kg is added to the aircraft's running dry ice total and appears on the NOTOC.