Welcome back to HazMat Shipping Essentials. I'm Roger with Lion Technology and this is the second video in our series where we start really unpacking key concepts you need to grasp on to ship hazardous materials safely and legally. If you've wondered lately, hey is this stuff HazMat? Then stick around.
At the end of this video you will know the nine categories of HazMat recognized around the world and why each class is regulated in transportation. So what is a hazardous material anyway? Most of what we call hazardous materials are regulated that way because they pose one or more specific types of dangers or hazards during transportation like being explosive or flammable or poisonous.
There are nine types or categories of hazmat called hazard classes with some of those classes separated into subcategories called divisions. We're going to talk about them all because when you are the one offering hazmat into the cycle of transportation, you are the one ultimately responsible for what you ship being properly classified based on its hazards. No one may ship hazmat in this country unless they comply with all applicable U.S.
DOT rules, and compliance starts with an accurate classification. Speaking of starting, Hazard Class 1 is the explosives class, and it's made up of six divisions that cover a broad range of materials and articles, from flat-out weapons of war that pose a mass explosion hazard to fireworks. big and small. Also in class one, you'll find chemical propellants, dynamite, detonators, gunpowder, gun ammunition, grenades, flares, rockets, and more, including things you might not think of as explosive or even hazardous, like some car airbag and seatbelt systems that use a pyrotechnic means to initiate during a crash.
Real quick, if you want to go deeper into the criteria for what makes something explosive or flammable or poisonous, Lion's free hazmat shipper starter guide. begins with hazmat classification. That free 10-step guide puts a lot of important basics in one place for new shippers.
You can grab it from the link in the video description, then refer to it whenever you want. Three divisions make up our second hazard class, which is for materials in a gaseous state. Division 2.1 materials are flammable gases like butane, propane, and methane. Division 2.2s are non-flammable, non-poisonous gases, things like cryogenic gases and gases that act as asphyxiants or oxidizers.
And Division 2.3 gases are poisoned by inhalation. These include sulfur dioxide, chlorine gas, and carbon monoxide. Next is Hazard Class 3, flammable and combustible liquids.
In just a few words, a Class 3 hazmat is a liquid that is vulnerable to catching fire at a temperature low enough to be a concern during transportation. Class 3 is by far the most transported hazard class by weight in the U.S. It's stacked with heavy hitter hazardous materials like alcohols.
fuel and heating oils, and widely used chemicals like acetone, benzene, and turpentine. We're back to divisions for Hazard Class 4, which covers flammable and reactive solid materials. Division 4.1 covers flammable and self-reactive solids.
That can be everything from magnesium metal to matchbooks to scraps of rubber to dry vegetable or cotton fibers. Division 4.2 is for spontaneously combustible material. These can be pyrophoric.
That's things that go up in flames within five minutes of touching the air, or self-heating materials, which react with oxygen and generate heat. Division 4.3 materials are dangerous when wet. Not to be confused with the breakthrough 1986 album Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi, dangerous when wet materials are liable to become flammable or give off toxic gas when they contact water.
Sodium and zinc metal are examples. There are two divisions. to class 5 oxidizers in division 5.1 and organic peroxides in division 5.2. Oxidizers are materials that give off oxygen.
What's hazardous about that? Oxygen is one of three things that a fire needs to ignite and survive. If it's near a fuel and a source of ignition, a division 5.1 material can contribute to a fire starting or make any fire stronger.
Ammonium nitrate fertilizer, It's a Division 5.1 hazardous material, one that was involved in two tragic disasters in recent memory, in West Texas in 2013 and Beirut, Lebanon in 2020. Organic peroxides are compounds that contain oxygen and have a specific molecular structure. They're unstable by nature, and they pose a risk of fire or explosion when exposed to heat, impact, friction, light, sparks, or other stimuli during transportation. Class number six is split into two divisions.
Division 6.1 materials are poisonous materials except for poison gases, which remember are with the other gases in Hazard Class 2. Division 6.1 materials are presumed toxic to humans based on test results for oral, skin, or inhalation exposure. Materials that can cause extreme irritation like tear gas are also 6.1s. Division 6.2 are infectious substances. These are materials known or reasonably expected to contain a pathogen like a virus that makes humans or animals sick. Class 7 is for radioactive materials.
That includes waste from nuclear power plants as well as materials that contain radionuclides and are used in medical equipment, medical gauges, and even medicines. Corrosive materials are assigned to Hazard Class 8. Liquid or solid materials get put in Class 8 because they can severely damage and destroy human skin, steel, or aluminum over time. Sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, and sodium hydroxide are all Class 8 hazardous materials.
Last but not least. Hazard Class 9 is the home for misfit or miscellaneous hazardous materials. Class 9 is for the stuff that doesn't fit into any of the eight classes we already talked about, but nonetheless is regulated as hazmat. There's a lot more to say about Class 9, so much more that we're going to follow this up with a whole video on Class 9 next week, so come back for that. Assigning your material to the correct hazard class or division is a crucial early step in the shipping process, one that will guide every decision you make until the shipment leaves your site.
from how you name and describe your material to the packaging required, the labels you use, the modes of transportation available to you, and so on. Getting this step right is not just important, it's your responsibility under the law if you want to ship hazardous materials. Thank you for taking some time to watch this video.
If you have a hazmat training question that you want answered, add it to the comments. To make sure you catch the next Hazmat Essentials video, subscribe to Lion's YouTube channel or follow us on social media. Head to lion.com slash hazmat for a link to a full FAQ page and a lot of other resources. Thank you again for sticking with me through the end of this video.
I will see you in the next one.