Video training helps avoid cargo risks

1 January 2011 sees the International Maritime Solid Bulk Cargoes (IMSBC) Code enter into force. The Code is mandatory under the provisions of the SOLAS Convention and supersedes the Code of Safe Working Practice for Bulk Cargoes (BC Code).

Videotel says that many solid bulk cargoes have serious risks associated with them that can affect ship stability, cause structural damage or pose health hazards to those on board. Videotel’s Dangerous & Difficult Cargoes series addresses this potentially life-threatening issue. Part 1 – Dangerous & Difficult Bulk Cargoes: Best Practice & the IMSBC Code – has already been released, while Dangerous & Difficult Bulk Cargoes Part 2 – Minerals & Man Made Derivatives will be released in Spring 2011.

The first programme details the IMSBC code, outlines best practices and highlights the group system used to identify cargoes: (Group A -cargo that may liquefy and therefore cause stability issues; Group B – cargo that may chemically change to cause explosion or toxic gas; Group C-cargoes not liable to liquefy or cause chemical hazard). Dangerous & Difficult Bulk Cargoes Part 2 outlines the catastrophic failures which can occur to the structural soundness of even the largest bulk carriers when corrosive chemical reactions take place in hazardous cargoes and identifies effective risk-management strategies.