Globally Harmonized System (GHS) in shipping regulation
How the UN Globally Harmonized System of chemical classification feeds the MARPOL Annex V HME criteria, marine pollutant rules and IMO cargo classification.
The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) is the United Nations scheme for classifying chemical hazards, and several IMO instruments borrow its hazard classes rather than defining their own. MARPOL Annex V Appendix I, inserted by resolution MEPC.277(70), classifies a solid bulk cargo as harmful to the marine environment when it meets named GHS classes: acute aquatic toxicity Category 1, chronic aquatic toxicity Category 1 or 2, and four human-health classes combined with persistence and bioaccumulation.
The full article will cover the GHS aquatic and health hazard classes, how revisions of the GHS are published, how IMO instruments refer to them with and without naming a revision, and the link between the GHS classes and the marine pollutant criteria for packaged goods. The solid bulk application is in Annex V HME cargo residues, E-waste and hold-wash water .